Since the inception of the HIPC Initiative, the story of the design and implementation of poverty alleviation strategies has largely been told through the filters of development partners and the Bretton Woods Institutions. Poverty Reduction Strategies in Action examines the efforts in Ghana to reduce poverty and initiate changes that it believes are essential to ensure a prosperous future for its citizens in the 21st century. It chronicles the achievements, pitfalls, and looming challenges of a government, its people, and its external partners in fashioning out and implementing anti-poverty and pro-growth policies. This edited volume, by a group of independent researchers, examines Ghana's experience: what was done, how it was done, what was left undone, the lessons learned, and fills the void in the development literature.

Explores how the Poverty Reduction Strategy Initiative (PRSI) process is working, as seen from the perspective of four recipient countries. This volume considers the PRSI process under the headings: design of the strategy; the extent of country ownership; implementation; accountability; and, alignment of development partner support.

A fundamental question about contemporary Africa is why does Africa remain so poor, long after the departure of the European Colonial domination and in the midst of so many natural resources? Poverty Reduction Strategies in Africa provides new understandings of the persistent issue of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and makes recommendations for policy frameworks to help African governments alleviate poverty. Each chapters uses case studies to review the old strategies for resolving the problem of poverty in the continent and make the case for new initiatives to address poverty. The contributors focus on practical and day-to-day issues as the best approach to formulate and implement poverty reduction strategies in contemporary Africa. This book is invaluable reading for students and scholars of African politics and development.

By integrating their poverty reduction strategies (PRSs), national budgets, and the corresponding reporting processes, low-income countries can strengthen domestic accountability and the implementation of pro-poor policies. Minding the Gaps, based on nine low-income country case studies and a review of relevant experience in four higher-income countries, offers practical insights for donors and national governments on how to strengthen the links between PRSs and budgets. PRS countries' efforts to integrate policy with budgeting processes have often had limited effect. Their policy making, planning, and budgeting are often embedded in fragmented processes and institutions. Going beyond mainly technical fixes that have been commonly used to address this fragmentation, this study frames domestic accountability in terms of ownership and incentive structures. Experience counsels the use of a simple approach that is not too ambitious. This approach should be centrally led and make use of existing systems while gradually improving them. It should build support from within and foster incentives for integration, for example by better linking PRS and budget reporting to actual decision-making processes. Also, simple budget reforms can significantly improve the budget's responsiveness to policies. Structuring a poverty reduction strategy paper in a more budget friendly manner can facilitate the interface with the budget by involving sector agencies more closely in elaborating policy priorities and establishing resource implications. It can also expand ownership and boost incentives for integration of a great number of stakeholders, thereby strengthening domestic accountability.

Lessons from Uganda on preparing a national strategy for poverty reduction, with stakeholders participating. Uganda's experience contributed substantially to the design of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.

Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) are the new buzzwords in development aid. Some 70 countries have already elaborated them in response to World Bank and bilateral aid agency requirements. This book presents detailed, field-level research on the application of PRSs in three countries: Tanzania, Vietnam and Honduras It describes the changing relations between the governments of these countries, donor agencies, and civic organizations that have taken part in formulating the new generation of PRSs. Poverty Reduction Strategies run up against a central paradox: in giving decisive policymaking powers to external agencies, the very process of drawing up development strategies to prioritise reducing poverty can gravely undermine the consolidation of democratic forces, structures and ideas in developing countries.

This study examines, traces and maps the poverty reduction policies adopted by six countries in Eastern and Southern Africa since the mid-1990s with a view to highlighting differences and similarities.