Title: Walk before you run: governance and public sector reforms in poverty reduction strategies
Abstract: Good policies, sound investments, and sustainable progress on poverty reduction all require good governance and effective public sector institutions. Solid improvements in governance will be required if many low-income countries are to attain the Millennium Development Goals, and better and more accountable public sector performance is needed to make services work for poor people. This paper explores how low-income countries are approaching governance and public sector reforms in their Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), expected to become the basis for all concessional development assistance and debt relief from the World Bank and IMF. Based on the early experience of PRSPs, it suggests lessons for countries, donors, and the PRSP approach. In coping with serious policy, capacity, and institutional constraints, an important challenge to be addressed by most PRSPs is to come up with realistic priorities for governance and public sector reforms and a minimalist but self-reinforcing agenda that is suited to the starting point for each country.
Publication Year: 2002
Publication Date: 2002-08-01
Language: en
Type: article
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