ECA Press Release No. 11/2001
AFRICAN PRSP LEARNING GROUP AND ECA/SPA EXPERTS TO MEET
Addis Ababa, 02 November 2001 (ECA) -- Senior African policymakers and civil society experts from ten countries will gather here from 5 - 6 November 2001 for the first annual meeting of the African Learning Group on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process.
The African Learning Group is an initiative designed by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) to promote African ownership of poverty reduction strategies. Back-to-back with the Learning Group meeting will be an Experts Group meeting on 7 November, organized jointly by ECA, the Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA) donor group and the SPA Secretariat of the World Bank, where African participants will be joined by representatives of the SPA donor group.
The objective of the two-day dialogue is to identify best practices that can be replicated, flag institutional and capacity constraints, recommend actions to remedy these constraints, and propose actions to be taken by Africans and donors to tap the full potential of the PRSP process in transforming the partnership between African countries and their donor partners.
The objective of the ECA/SPA Experts meeting is to share information between the two groups of participants -- African policymaker sand SPA donors -- as a way of facilitating dialogue on partnership approaches and modalities so that the PRSP can better support an African-led agenda.
Representatives of the SPA Secretariat, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (ADB) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) will join both meetings in an observer status and as resource persons.
The rationale for the meeting is that African countries are encountering a number of issues and challenges as they prepare and implement national poverty strategies. These issues include:
- The linkage between PRSPs and existing national strategies; - Tensions between ownership of national poverty reduction strategies and the required joint assessment of these strategies by the World Bank and the IMF as a condition for access to concessional resources from these institutions; - Trade-off between the time required to prepare comprehensive and nationally-owned PRSPs and the urgent need for debt relief; and - Demands placed on weak national capacities by the requirements for participatory and consultative preparation of PRSPs.
The agenda for the PRSP Learning Group meeting is designed to facilitate discussions on these issues and includes five sessions organized around thematic clusters:
- The scope and content of the growth strategy underpinning PRSPs; - PRSP-relating financing and public expenditure management issues; - The depth and legitimacy of the participatory process associated with the preparation and implementation of PRSPs; - Institutional and analytical capacity requirements associated with the enhanced focus on poverty; and; - The extent to which donor modalities are being adjusted to the objective and spirit of the PRSP process.
The discussions of these issues will be informed by the findings of several country studies commissioned by ECA and prepared by senior African consultants. Each country study attempts to shed light on the relevant issues in the five thematic clusters on the agenda. A synthesis paper summarizing the findings of the country studies in each of the thematic areas is also available.
To allow for candid and interactive dialogue, participation is limited to three representatives from each of the ten invited countries. Each country team will include two senior Government policymakers with direct responsibility and involvement in the PRSP process in the country and one representative of a civil society organization or research institutions that has worked closely with Government in this process. The meeting with be moderated and facilitated by African experts.
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Based on the PRSP capacity needs as articulated by African participants, ECA will assist the countries, by providing advisory and policy support, brokering support from other development institutions and partners, and networking expertise to assist the African countries. African perspectives from the meetings will also be formally communicated to the SPA Plenary meeting in Paris in January 2002.
BACKGROUND:
The World Bank and IMF introduced the PRSPs as a framework for developing poverty reduction strategies at country level after determining in September 1999 that nationally-owned participatory poverty reduction strategies should provide the basis of all their concessional lending and for debt relief under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.
The SPA group was established in 1987 to provide concessional financing to low income sub-Saharan African countries undertaking adjustment measures. The SPA agenda has evolved to include a sharper focus on poverty reduction and on improving aid relationships in support of longer-term development outcomes. The SPA group is now supported through a Technical Group composed of seven Task Teams with work programmes focused on a range of issues germane to the PRSP content and process. Starting in December 1999, ECA joined the SPA group as a full member of the Plenary and the Technical Group to strengthen the African voice in the deliberations of the SPA.
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For more information, please contact Peter da Costa
Tel: +251-1-51 58 26 Fax: +251-1-51 03 65
E-mail: pdacosta@uneca.org
PRSP website: www.worldbank.org/poverty/strategies/index.htm SPA website: www.spa-psa.org
COMING SOON ... DEFINING PRIORITIES FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION ... THE THIRD AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FORUM, ADDIS ABABA, 24 - 28 FEBRUARY 2002... FOR MORE DETAILS VISIT www.uneca/adfIII
Issued by the Communication Team ECA
United Nations P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: +251-1-44 50 98 or 44 31 61 Fax: +251-1-51 03 65
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org Web: www.uneca.org
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