• Poverty and PRSPs

Poverty and PRSPs

This paper argues that the Japanese development community should not take the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) and Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper (PRSP) regime as given, but instead, should endeavour to conceive and propose effective approaches to poverty reduction based on its own experiences and perspectives.

The paper outlines issues that should be considered by the Japanese government and aid agencies in developing contributions to poverty reduction. It questions the orientation of development assistance being focused on poverty reduction, the relevance and significance of Japan's experiences in development or assistance when it comes to developing poverty reduction strategies and policies, what position Japan should adopt regarding aid coordination under the PRSP regime and how Japan can be involved in the PRSP formulation process.

The paper concludes by arguing that the scope of Japan's contributions should not be restricted to those from the government and governmental organisations. Rather, it states that civil society and the private business community could also contribute in ways that reflect their interests and capabilities; utilising nongovernmental channels would help broaden the scope of Japan's contributions to poverty reduction.

The paper further argues that nongovernmental actors would also be able to play an important watchdog role in prodding the government to adopt more appropriate policies, thereby increasing public support for poverty-oriented assistance. One especially important challenge for Japanese NGOs concerned with poverty reduction is to break out of the sole focus on direct involvement in each individual project and engage in more general analysis and proposals for promoting workable approaches to poverty reduction.

This is the second article in edition 15 of Technology and Development journal (January 2003)

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend