Integrating the environment into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: a methodology for evaluating a country’s perception of its performance

The PRSP review process is guided by a set of two overarching questions followed by a more detailed list of 15 questions. An evaluation of these questions highlights that environment issues aren’t examined. The authors argue that this is not surprising as most PRSPs have emphasised traditional engines of economic growth.

The paper states that recent studies on the links among the environment, human well-being and poverty have revealed the close links the poor have with the environment especially ecosystem services. Acknowledging these critical links also requires that environmental concerns are integrated explicitly in PRSPs. In addition, the paper argues that the World Bank methodology developed to evaluate environmental integration within PRSPs provides only provides a very rough indicator of that integration.

Therefore this paper advances a different approach using a structured questionnaire to solicit preferences from a range of stakeholders involved in the PRSP process and moves beyond the traditional definition of environmental issues to an ecosystem approach. [adapted from author]