Source: CDD Ghana
This report argues that the US’s Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) aims to build local-level capacity so that by the end of the five-year period recipient countries are in more favourable positions to attract investment and donor support. In addition, the MCA aims to enable recipient states, like Ghana, to make better use of its own funds by building local capacity and expertise. Finally, barring any serious mismanagement of funds, political changes in the US government will not affect the MCA. Therefore, it is up to (Millennium Development Authority) MiDA and the Ghanaian government to make greater efforts in implementation, governance, and sustainability of MCA.
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Source: African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
The eighth Senior Policy Seminar (SPS) at the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) was the fourth to focus on pro-poor growth in Africa. It follows earlier seminars (Dar es Salaam, 2003; Kampala, 2004; and Cape Town, 2005) which, respectively, examined appropriate macroeconomic policy measures for pro-poor growth in Africa; mobilising financing for pro-poor growth in Africa; and, institutional issues in securing pro-poor growth in Africa. In Cape Town, policymakers identified poor governance as a major obstacle to pro-poor growth in Africa hence the adoption of Governance and Pro-Poor Growth in Africa as the theme of the SPS VIII held in Dakar, Senegal on March 7–9, 2006.
This SPS was attended by 70 participants from 18 countries comprising ministers, parliamentarians, central bank governors, advisers and researchers. This Policy Brief, the first of its kind, presents a synopsis of main conclusions and policy recommendations emanating from the deliberations during the seminar.
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Source: CAFOD, Christian Aid and Troicare
A new resource developed by CAFOD, Christian Aid, and Trocaire aims to support civil society organizations (CSOs) to see what difference government policies are really making. CSOs are increasingly playing an important role monitoring the implementation and impact of public policies. This involves collecting evidence to see if governments are delivering the resources for health, education or local development that they promised. Or it can mean collecting evidence to see what the positive or negative impacts are of a particular policy. The data collected from monitoring is then used by civil society groups to engage in evidence-based advocacy to ensure proper implementation of existing policies and services and influence future policy decisions.
The tools and case studies in the publication were developed over one year and piloted in workshops in Sierra Leone, Malawi and Ethiopia. For groups interested in holding their governments to account for the impact and implementation of government policies but who don’t know where to start, the toolkit will provide a step-by-step introduction. For groups already engaged in this kind of work, the toolkit will provide fresh ideas and useful case studies from other African organizations.
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Source: Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR)
In January 2007, following the launch of the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) and the National Long Term Vision for Zambia by President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, the Zambian NGO Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) thanked the government for inviting the group to the launch and provided its analysis.
CSPR commended the government for initiating the long-awaited FNDP and for the president’s public commitment to the project. CSPR also commended the government’s intention to disseminate the FNDP throughout Zambia in order to encourage broad public participation in implementing and monitoring the plan. Civil society and CSPR in particular, intends to complement this task of public education. CSPR already has begun simplifying the official FNDP document to make it more accessible to the general public and CSPR believes that more can be accomplished in this area through partnerships between the government and civil society.
CSPR also reiterated the need to involve parliament in key development processes like the FNDP in order to enhance local accountability. Elected leaders must take center stage in key decision-making processes and in setting priorities for the nation.
Public participation can only be guaranteed, however, if the FDNP’s implementation is brought closer to the people in meaningful ways, CSPR believes. This entails placing the district councils and authorities that are ultimately the drivers of local development at the center of local implementation processes. Therefore, decentralization is critical, and CSPR called on the government to support the speedy implementation of the Decentralization Implementation Plan (DIP) to improve program implementation and service delivery at the local level.
CSPR agrees with the priorities spelled out in the FNDP and believes that in light of the resource constraints facing the plan, the FNDP offer a reasonable approach to addressing Zambia’s economic and poverty challenges. While the government has made some progress in financing the plan by securing local funds and pledges from cooperating partners, CSPR is concerned at the large financing gap that remains. The group joins the government in appealing to donors to fulfill their commitments so the government does not resort to incurring unsustainable debt as a means of financing the plan.
CSPR welcomes the president’s call for government ministers and controlling officers to be accountable for meeting the FNDP targets. This will ensure real accountability and responsibility among the people charged with running Zambia’s development process. It also should improve the performance of planning and monitoring bodies like the sector advisory groups and district development coordinating committees by establishing clear, robust indicators of success.
In conclusion, CSPR stands ready to work with the government to make the FNDP succeed and to address other issues of national concern.
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Source: Bank Information Center
An article by the Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency describes a critical new report on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) lending to sub-Saharan Africa. According to IPS, the report, which was conducted by the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), the Fund’s own monitoring unit, found that the IMF’s work in Africa is “confused, vague, lacks transparency and suffers from a large gap between rhetoric and practice.â€
The report’s conclusions were based on the experiences of five countries in Africa between 1999 and 2005 under the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) concessional lending program. The report noted that while the countries under study registered positive economic growth and improved macroeconomic indicators, the proportion of people living in poverty did not decrease. These findings highlight the gap between the Fund’s stated commitments to reducing poverty and the impacts of the policies it promotes. Civil society advocates have long argued that the Fund’s operations have exacerbated rather than decreased poverty, through the strict economic policy conditions that it often attaches to its loans. As explained in the IPS article, such conditions typically include “tight fiscal management, tax reforms, financial sector reform, governance reforms, economic liberalisation and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.†Some civil society organizations such as AFRODAD argue that PRGFs have failed to improve overall poverty reduction outcomes (see link to Afrodad report below). There is growing concern about the IMF’s continued insistence on capping public expenditure, which may constrain a country’s ability to hire more of the doctors and teachers needed to fight HIV/AIDS, increase school enrollment, or otherwise improve social service delivery.
The IEO’s report comes amid increasing debate about the continued relevance of the IMF. The Fund is in crisis, with growing numbers of middle income borrowers repaying their debts to get out of programs with the IMF, and with some poorer borrowing countries such as Ghana expressing reluctance to cast their lot with the Fund; in November, Ghana announced its withdrawal from the PRGF, citing the “highly prescriptive conditions†attached to the loans.
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Source: AFRODAD
The impact of the PRGF on the social services studies are part of the broader policy oriented research and analysis aimed at decision makers to facilitate better understanding of the linkages between policy programs and the current pursuit of social services provision on the countries under study. It is also part of broader agenda for enhancing national partnerships and civil society's ability to analyse the underlying problems with the PRGF and help increase their capacity to map out strategies that will help deliver better social services to the poor.
The four country case studies undertaken raise a number of concerns that need to be addressed for any meaningful progress on poverty reduction and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is hoped that both the IMF and African governments will take the findings of this report seriously and address concerns aptly.
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Source: AFRODAD
Research findings in Zambia suggest that IMF policies are still based on rather arbitrary macroeconomic targets, failing to move from short-term stabilization programmes to long-term poverty reduction strategies. While findings suggest that expenditures for education and health have increased relatively within the budgets, stringent inflationary targets, lacking policy space and fiscal flexibility restrict governments from making real progress towards the MDGs. The control of wage ceilings has eroded meaningful wages and in some cases added to the rates of unemployment.
This case study on Zambia raises a number of concerns. The overall picture suggests that the above areas require attention from the architects of the PRGF as well as to the implementing governments. Allowing for meaningful public dialogue in the PRGF process and integrating poverty indicators in the assessment of PRGF performance is key.
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Source: Afrimap
This report, prepared by the Kigali office of the Ligue des Droits de la Personne dans la Région des Grands Lacs with the support of AfriMAP, analyses the extent to which the APRM process in Rwanda respected the criteria of effectiveness and credibility set out in the founding documents of the APRM -- in particular the extent to which it was open and participatory. The report reviews the challenges faced during the process, including the lack of technical expertise at national level, the weakness of civil society participation, and difficulties of accessing information.
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Source: Choike.org
The article argues that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are the major cause of poverty in African countries today. Despite claims that they will reduce poverty in Africa, it is widely accepted that most of the debts, as a cause of poverty in Africa, are due to the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
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Source: Economic Policy Research Consortium
Uganda’s reform programme has been one of the most successful in Sub-Saharan Africa since the mid-1980s. Aid and external support has in various forms helped support the generation and implementation of policy reforms. When the government first rejected and later reluctantly introduced market reforms. When the government first rejected and later reluctantly introduced market based reforms policy dialogue, advisory services, training and technical assistance were of critical importance both for the decisions to reform and the direction of the reforms. The government of Uganda has made uncharacteristically good use of technical assistance. Influences from Ghana and other countries were also very valuable during this period. When the government decided to reform in the late 1980s, financial aid and conditionality became a main, and most powerful, cause for the reform undertakings. Conditionality, which earlier had been regarded as externally imposed, was now being used by pr-reformers within the government to help push the reforms. With a very weak revenue base financial support was, and still is, necessary for implementation of most reforms. However, since 1992 with secured government ownership conditionality tends to become less relevant for inducing reforms. Policy dialogue can again become the most important donor instrument to support reform generation
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