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PRSPs

Observing poverty reduction: a compilation of participatory poverty assessment summary reports 2002 - 2005

Monitoring the impact of Zambia's PRSP

Authors: ; CSPR Secretariat
Publisher: Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, Zambia, 2006

Full text of document

Have Zambian citizens benefited from their country's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)? This compilation of poverty assessments covers the PRSP phase from 2002-2005. It reports on local communities' perspectives of the impact of poverty reduction programmes. Overall, it concludes that PRSP implementation in Zambia, whilst successful in some areas, has in general been weak

The report evaluates PRSP implementation in:

  • three social sectors - education, health and water and sanitation
  • livelihood earning sectors - agriculture, fishing, non-farm economic activities, tourism and mining
  • cross-cutting issues - HIV/ AIDS, gender, environment and governance.

As a result of poor implementation, and even given the short duration of the PRSP, its impact on poverty reduction has been less than it could have been. The authors do, however, argue that the findings should serve as a firm base for continuing monitoring exercises.