Monitoring Support for Commonwealth PRSP Countries

Monitoring Supports to Bangladesh’s
Poverty Reduction Strategy by the BWIs: Initial Issues

The Commonwealth Secretariat based in the UK commissioned ERG to undertake an assessment of supports provided by the development partners to Bangladesh's poverty reduction strategy. Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, Chairman, ERG, is undertaking the study, with assistance from Iftekharul Huq. Dr. Bishakha Mukherjee will provide inputs on experiences in other countries. The text below is a preliminary listing of the key issues to be addressed in the study, and questions to be explored in the course of consultations. Once the draft report is ready, it will be put up in the web for comments and views from wider body. Related links are provided on the right column of this page.

Issues to be addressed in the Study

A.     The Poverty Reduction Strategy Itself

1. Is the PRS seen and accepted by the government, Parliament and other country stakeholders – as a country-owned strategy? 

   • Is the strategy understood and owned throughout government, beyond the central policy groups? Is there high level political commitment to the strategy within Government? Is it understood and discussed in Parliament?

   • How does it relate to other strategic policy processes: MTEF; annual budgets? Are there overlaps and/or sufficient linkages? Is the PRS seen as the medium term strategy for development and poverty reduction, or as only one among several such strategies?

   • Was participation by other stakeholders including the private sector and civil society effective? Is it continuing? How could it be made more effective? Has it helped strengthen country ownership?

   • Is there any tension between country ownership and the requirement for endorsement by IMF/World Bank (and donors) as a strategy deserving their support?  How is this tension (if there is one) being addressed, and could it be handled better?

2. Is the strategy a good one? What improvements have had to be made so far, and what further improvements should be made in future?

   • Was there proper consideration of the sources of growth, livelihoods and poverty reduction, and possible alternative strategies? Could the strategy have been more ambitious if greater resources had been available?

   • Were the right priorities selected?

3. How well is the strategy being implemented in practice?

   • How do the links between annual PRS reviews, the MTEF and annual budget decisions work in practice?  Are actual policy decisions founded in the PRS, or are other considerations more important?

   • Is the national budgeting and expenditure control system effective?  How can it be improved?  What explains the budget overspends in recent years?

   • What difficulties have arisen in practice in the course of implementation, and how have they been addressed?  What arrangements are in place to maintain PRS priorities in the face of unexpected developments?

   • Are the BWIs and other development partners providing the support promised/needed?

B. Support from the BWIs

1. How well are the BWI’s supporting the process of producing the PRS, progress reports and implementation?

• Are their assessments of strengths and weaknesses correct and useful?

• Do the local offices have sufficient resources to support the process? Are there any differences of view between local staff and head offices? 

2. Has their support been grounded as intended in the PRS? (This question relates both to macroeconomic conditionality and sectoral policies and projects).

• Are BWI missions and decisions timed to coincide with government budget decisions?

• Where their assistance specified extra conditions and requirements, did these conform with government priorities? 

• How has BWI support and conditionality adapted to unexpected developments? Are there adequate arrangements in place to adapt conditionality and/or provide additional support in the case of exogenous shocks and other unexpected developments?

C. Support from other Development Partners

1. Have other partners and donors accepted the PRS as the basis for their continued financial support?

• Is there sufficient external support to finance the programme in the PRS, or are there funding gaps?

• How far have donors moved towards accepting the government’s policies and priorities set out in the PRS and sector strategies as the basis for their support?  How much movement has there been towards providing finance in the form of budget support and support through SWaps? Are donors imposing additional policy or other requirements? What proportion of donor support still goes to projects outside the budget and what could be done to reduce this amount, eg by line ministries, and through strengthening financial management? 

• Is financial support becoming more predictable? Are donor decisions and disbursements timed to coincide with the budget cycle?

• Are there important differences between development partners in any of these respects?

2. How well is the process of donor coordination and harmonization working?

• What are the coordination arrangements with donors, and how are they working?

• What progress is being made by donors in harmonising procedures, practices and operational requirements with government systems, reducing number and frequency of donor missions, decentralising more decisions to local offices?

D. Review and Monitoring
 

1. What arrangements have the government or BWIs and other development partners put in place for monitoring progress?

• Are there adequate performance benchmarks and data?

• What is being done to strengthen data availability?  What more should be done? 

2. Are there (or should there be) any arrangements for independent evaluation of the PRS process in Bangladesh?