Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have shown strong signs of growth resilience in the aftermath of the recent global crisis. Yet, this paper finds evidence that growth has more than proportionately benefited the top quintile during PRSP implementation. It finds that PRSP implementation has neither reduced poverty headcount nor raised the income share of the poorest quintile in Sub-Saharan Africa. While countries in other regions have been more successful in reducing poverty and increasing the income share of the poor, there is no conclusive evidence that PRSP implementation has played a role in shaping these outcomes.

When discussing development issues in Africa, it is not sufficient to simply stress the ubiquity of failure, malnutrition, disease, predatory states and war; one also has to recognize that important aspects in the lives of millions of ordinary people have been transformed over the last five decades. The contributions in this book are rooted in extensive empirical research at local, regional and/or national level in different African countries (Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa and Uganda), while some take a pan-African view. All, however, offer insight from different analytical perspectives into the heterogeneity of poverty and development processes in Sub-Saharan Africa and confront the ideas, concepts and assumptions that lie behind pro-poor policies. The volume also encourages policy makers to choose realistic policy prescriptions in an attempt to move people out of poverty.

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.

Provides a comparative analysis of the approaches and strategies adopted in the respective Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). Includes information on workshops held on the issue.

This timely book will stimulate debate about the roots of poverty in Africa and what should be done about it. The analysis leads to a different policy agenda for aid, trade, debt and corruption, and also a different campaigning agenda for NGOs: agendas that have a focus on support for the emergence of a new kind of politics in Africa.