nssds: Vital development tool or empty acronym?

Workshop Presentations

World Bank Initiatives - Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)

Sarah Cambridge: World Bank

View contents page

Paula Chalinder has outlined many of the major issues and problems [view previous page].  Are strategies a burden made by donors?  The Bank is concerned with this.  From this idea of the burden placed on developing countries, in 1998 the Bank did a series of consultations around the world to see where we are and how we go forward.  The Bank represents donors and developing countries.  The CDF came out of this.  The principles it represents are what Paula Chalinder outlined.  The idea is to try and find ways for developing countries to look at the programmes in their countries.  Is this what the donors want?

There is a sense of working together and trying to achieve goals.  It is a process which started 18 months ago.  We are in the pilot phase ending September this year.  There were countries self-selected and some were elected i.e. Bolivia and Ghana.  There are various overlaps.  To what extent does it work well?  Pilot countries go through the process. The Ghana document is really interesting with regard to lessons learnt.  It shows a plethora of strategies happening in different countries.  The Bank thought it needed to go one step further.  To be effective and to make it work you need ownership of a country.  Targets are good but the country needs to see what they want to achieve.  Highly indebted poor countries are working on PRSPs.  The idea of a PRSP is the country develops it itself and presents this to the donors to see themselves what they want to achieve.  At the moment countries are beginning to develop their PRSPs particularly highly indebted countries.  There is a resource handbook and a draft out on the handbook which details how to measure impacts.  It is interesting to see some of the ways we have tried to mould these issues together.  PRSPs is this process.  There is already some movement in other countries but Uganda are a long way ahead.  The overall idea is: - PRSPs and particularly CDF, are an opportunity for everyone to be involved in development.  It goes one step further to help civil society ownership.  It has to be owned by all sectors of society.  PRSPs are meant to outline how civil society is involved in developing a sense of ownership.