Poverty reduction strategies

Poverty reduction strategies have become major instruments for governments to address the issue of poverty. There are various frameworks and various kinds of strategies.

Poverty Reduction Strategy Frameworks

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) approach that was initiated by the World Bank and IMF have become an important joint collaboration framework for partner governments and donors. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute another major framework for development planning. Increasingly the Poverty Reduction Strategies and the MDG projects are being synchronized. www.prsp-watch.de provides country reports on the PRSP processes, 15 reports are now available in English

General information on PRSP is available from:

• The World Bank - Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
• The World Bank: Poverty
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) -introduction to the concept, links to the PRSPs of all countries

"Second opinions" commenting on the PRSP framework from various views are available at following pages:

• Eldis: Watching the Poverty Reduction Strategies Process
• Eurodad: PRSP
• PRSP: Monitoring and Synthesis Project
• Critical Voices on the World Bank and IMF

Disability and Poverty Reduction Strategies

Despite the fact that poverty and disability are closely interlinked disability and the inclusion of disabled people in development frameworks, plans and programmes is not adequately considered. For instance, the disability dimension is not included explicitly in either the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the OECD/DAC Guidelines on Poverty Reduction. The PRSP Sourcebook links to a few disability issues only. Until recently, disabled people were seldom mentioned in PRSPs.

Most of the newest actual poverty reduction strategies "recognize that disabled persons are among the poorest households" but they do not address disability and the inclusion of disabled people in a systematic, integrated and multisectoral manner. Two thirds of PRSPs handle disability as a matter of social protection rather than active participation and mainstreaming. Only one in three PRSPs maintain that the goal is to bring disabled people into the development process. Furthermore, the disability elements of the PRSP tend to evaporate and do not translate into concrete targets and budgets.

• Poverty Reduction Strategies: Their Importance for Disability. (PDF) Disability and Development Team, July 7, 2004.
• Poverty Reduction Strategies and Disability (PPT) Findings about Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers by Rene Bonnel, The World Bank 2004. (Power Point presentation)
• Disability and Poverty Reduction Strategies (PDF doc) (ILO)

Guidelines and checklists on how to include disability in the identification, design, preparation and implementation of projects:

Lorna Jean Edmonds: Disabled People and Development. (PDF) Asian Development Bank, June 2005

The paper provides information and analytical tools applicable at various stages of the project preparation cycle. The study was commissioned by the Asian Development Bank and it contains many examples from the Developing Member Countries in the region.

The ADB Disability and Development website contains more material related to the project. Country reports are available in PDF format: India, Cambodia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.