The need for
participation in the formulation of poverty reduction strategies has been
explicitly acknowledged for its role in increasing country ownership and
subsequent efficiency. Increasingly the donor community, including international
financial institutions, have begun to realise this potential value of
participation. As a result new concepts have been proposed to put participatory
efforts for poverty alleviation into practice. ‘Local ownership’ and
‘sector-wide approaches’, varying arguments for ‘pro-poor growth’ and even the
approach espoused by the ‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers’ are offshoots of
this given imperative. Fifty seven developing countries, including Pakistan
have adopted the PRSP approach, which is intended to become the main channel
for providing aid to all developing countries.
Area
of Research
Given the
growing significance of the PRSP approach, my proposal will focus on the PRSP
process in Pakistan, particularly the issue of participation within it, which
seemed to have offered a significant opportunity for infusing a greater sense
of ownership within policy making. I will focus on various aspects of
participation in the formulation of an internationally prescribed development
policy, including that of national policy makers, various tiers of government
and the public at large
Specific
Objective
The
basic objectives of my research are to improve the quality of analysis,
highlight lessons learned and provide recommendations to enhance local ownership
of international poverty alleviation and development initiatives by
encouraging greater participation through means feasible both for the Pakistan
Government and its international donors.
The PRSP
approach claims to provide ownership within countries – ownership
that ensures that aid is coordinated, that a country’s economic policies are
under its own control, and that there is pro-poor growth in a way which is
specifically useful to that country. However, real ownership requires that the
poor and those working with the poor also be involved in the process of
strategizing to make sure that the help from outside is coordinated
accordingly. I will consult government
and World Bank personnel in charge of the PRSP formulation to solicit their
views concerning the formulation of the PRSP for Pakistan.
Unfortunately,
many voices from across the developing world say that civil society was either
consulted symbolically or not listened to at all in most countries that
formulated a PRSP. This is a serious problem, which undermines the very
legitimacy of the PRSP process. To see what real life issues and hurdles
emerged tainting consultative processes for formulating a PRSP that was meant
to be both participatory and representative, I propose to focus on the example of Pakistan and retrospectively draw
lessons from this experience which may be useful in making salient
international development processes like the PRSP more participatory.
Despite
successive government’s efforts with due donor support, it has failed to bring
relief to the issues of poverty. The current military regime initiated work on
an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Program, used as a base for the PRSP
approved by the joint assessment of the IFIs. The PRSP for Pakistan is dovetailed
with the process of decentralization. Yet the decentralization model is also
having its own teething troubles and not yet demonstrated its ability to
improve delivery mechanism or to better represent the aspirations of the
masses. I will try to explore (through
interviews with relevant stakeholders, through use of secondary resources or
potentially based on new research) the simultaneous process of devolution and
implementation of PRSP to assess if these simultaneous reforms have in fact
been able to bolster each other.
Parallel to the
claims of devolution of political power resulting in increased representation
of grassroots aspiration in the political arena, had been the rhetoric
accompanying the formulation of the PRSP, which mentioned that extensive
participatory exercises through which views and opinions of a wide variety of
stakeholders have been solicited. Yet vocal critics said that the only
‘participatory’ meetings that took place were those that invited government
functionaries, alongside a scattering of individuals who have no formal
affiliation with the government. One must concede that even the involvement of
district level officials does not necessarily translate into the claim that the
views of people at the district level have been solicited. The fact that
political parties, the organizations from which a democratic process selects
the representatives of the people, were not involved in the PRSP is also
undeniable. Neither is there evidence of involvement of trade unions, people’s
movements, civic, and professional bodies. Conversely, reports of NGOs and
other civil society representatives staging walkouts from the PRSP consultative
process were splashed all over the local press. Given this contention, it is
therefore necessary to ascertain how participatory the PRSP process was in
Pakistan. In addition to assessing the
actual process of participation, I will obtain a diverse range of CSO inputs
(through interviews with relevant stakeholders, through use of secondary
resources or potentially based on new research) with reference to the PRSP to
ascertain what the PRSP could potentially have looked like if more extensive
consultations could have taken place.
Proposed Outcome
By exploring the above issues, my
research will attempt to highlight not only the real value that civil society has been able to add but also the potential value that could have added if
its participation had been secured. This will in turn enable identification of
a comprehensive framework for enhancing participation and gaining more
recognition for future multilateral development initiatives in Muslim, and
other developing countries, of the world. The findings of this research study will be circulated
amongst relevant government ministries in Pakistan, the
International Financial Institutions (IMF and World Bank), other interested
multilateral and bilateral donors, and a range of civil society organizations
across Pakistan and abroad.