Whose Poverty Matters? Vulnerabilty, Social Protection and PRSPs

Assessing PRSPs and I-PRSPs developed to tackling poverty in low-income countries

58 pages

This paper examines the ways in which Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (I-PRSP) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) are tackling social protection issues.The author concludes that while there is considerable diversity among these PRSPs and I-PRSPs, there are commonalities in the kinds of analysis employed, strategies given the highest priority and the policy areas and issues which receive little attention.

The author believes that since the PRSPs are developed in the context of obtaining debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative and must be approved by International Monitory Fund and World Bank, in most cases their content reflects the priorities of the Bretton Woods Institutions.Some of the findings of the paper are:

General policy orientation in all strategies tends to emphasize growth, social services, and improved governance;
Some strategies highlight equity concerns but these are not clearly reflected in policy choices;
PRSPs and I-PRSPs do not contain any explicit analysis of different social impacts of particular policy choices;
Strategies reviewed do not contain reasons for inclusion or exclusion for policy directions;
Strategies do not discuss chosen policies in detail;
Social protection measures concentrate on livelihood/income support and access to key services;
Social protection measures appear weakly redistributive;
Identification of particularly poor and vulnerable groups is partial;
While childhood poverty is discussed explicitly, there is insufficient detail of analysis.