Inclusive poverty reduction

Walter Eberlei (Ed.):
Stakeholder participation in poverty reduction.
INEF Report 86/2007, Duisburg 2007, 82 p., ISSN 0941-4967, download from http://inef.uni-due.de/page/Serien.html/rep

Since 1999, donor governments have been pressing poor countries for national poverty reduction plans. To date, civil-society agencies from 55 countries have become involved, to a greater or lesser degree, in drafting such documents. The Institute for Development and Peace, on behalf of the World Bank, has investigated the impact they have had on programmes, their implementation and revision. The findings are mixed. In most cases participation was implemented only half-heartedly, although Uganda and Tanzania are gratifying exceptions. In five countries, the study established an increase in civil-society participation during the revision of the plans. The poor and (with the exception of Ghana) the parliaments, however, largely remained uninvolved, whereas donor influence was significant. Both non-governmental organisations and legislators in affected countries often lack the capacities they’d need to design realistic alternative policies, particularly in economic affairs. (bl)