• Poverty and PRSPs

Poverty and PRSPs

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers represent both a primary policy device of international development institutions, and an instance of a wider international convergence of public policy around global integration and social inclusion. Charting the emergence of these approaches, this paper argues that this convergence has a number of structural predilections which favour the technical and juridical over the political economic, and a disciplinary framework over practical contest. Drawing extensively on decentralized governance and Poverty Reduction programs in Uganda, this paper shows how these predilections obscure power relations and restrict practical and political options, while exacting heavy establishment and compliance costs.

Based on this, some of the key recommendations of this paper include:

• the fact that higher level transfers can be crucial for maintaining basic human needs services, but they are most effective if used also to support a facilitative, engaging relation of local authorities with productive enterprises - in the local Ugandan context, where there are many simple things the local state can do to support agricultural production, the focus in Poverty Reduction is almost entirely elsewhere
• where PRSP policies seek mainly to get national positioning in relation to the global established on a globally ‘rational’ basis. But while macrostability is certainly important, it will ultimately be much more specific and local dimensions of polity, society and economy linked to global change that will determine outcomes for many poor. This, especially where restrictions on labour mobility and core market access remain so one sided
• IFIs and the political backers need to actively indicate that peripheral and especially semi-peripheral economies can both avoid narrow blueprints, and at the same time be within a legitimate comprehensive frame
• local governments will need to be able send strong signals to IFIs about where specific sectors and places are likely to be disruptively impacted by particular frameworks

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