"Khan says for the poverty paper to be a document of the people there should have been formal debate on the floor of the parliament as well as grassroots village-based consultation in Bengali by those responsible for the plan. But the poverty paper was never brought to the floor of the national parliament – even though it has a picture of the national parliament on the front. “Could there have been a better deception than this?” asks Khan.
“Parliamentarians happen to be the representatives of the people, as a norm of the accepted democratic traditions of the world,” he says. “If the parliamentarians do not even have a chance to discuss this document, how on earth could I say that this document is owned by the people of this country?” he asks.“So without consultation at these two levels – the grassroots and the parliamentary – I don’t believe there has been any worthwhile consultation at all,” he says.
See a response by Praful Patel of the World Bank;
“The World Bank, along with the International Monetary Fund, requires a country to articulate its development and poverty-fighting priorities in a poverty reduction strategy paper, or PRSP, to set the context for appropriate international support.
From our side the logic is clear: a PRSP is an opportunity to redefine the aid relationship by empowering governments to set their own priorities, against which they will be held accountable. And the people of Bangladesh must decide, based on the document their government has placed before them, whether it is the right framework to deepen development…”
For Discussion; Is it about time that World Bank/IMF move away from the PRSP model of giving aid? There seems to something fundamentally wrong when the country’s PRSP cannot be found on any of the government’s websites but is on the donors' website.
Related;
Bangladesh - Poverty reduction strategy paper and joint IDA-IMF staff advisory note
Bangladesh Government links; Medium-Term Budget Framework, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division
Bangladesh –links from World Bank
Virtual Bangladesh
Quarterly Economic Update, Bangladesh (ADB)
Doing Business in Bangladesh
Annual Review of Development Effectiveness (ARDE) 2006 from World Bank
PRSP Sourcebook
Bangladesh-Isn't democracy wonderful?
Blogs- Best Bangladesh Blogs, drishtripat group blog, The 3rd World View, (let us know if you know any economics blog for Bangladesh)
2 comments:
Moyeen Khan’s criticism is a very important one. But it is a
big jump from that criticism to a view that the WB should therefore
look for alternatives to the PRSP.
The alternative approach would be for the WB (and the WB’s
backdonors) to put a lot more emphasis on transparency in its
negotiations with the Government of Bangladesh (and others), and the
Government’s subsequent use of aid monies (both grant and
loans). Tabling the draft and final PRSP in Parliament would be one
visible step towards greater transparency. So would ensuring that the
draft and final PRSP was made readily available on the main government
websites.
The experience of other countries with PRSPs is relevant here. They
vary substantially in the degree of transparency that is associated
with PRSPs and even more so, transparency surrounding the multi-donor
budget support (MDBS) that is provided if and when a PRSP is produced.
I have had some direct involvement in this process in one West African
country, which is referred to in the following blog posts on
transparency and PRSPs
Moyeen Khan’s criticism is a very important one. But it is a big jump from that criticism to a view that the WB should therefore look for alternatives to the PRSP.
The alternative approach would be for the WB (and the WB’s backdonors) to put a lot more emphasis on transparency in its negotiations with the Government of Bangladesh (and others), and the Government’s subsequent use of aid monies (both grant and loans). Tabling the draft and final PRSP in Parliament would be one visible step towards greater transparency. So would ensuring that the draft and final PRSP was made readily available on the main government websites.
The experience of other countries with PRSPs is relevant here. They vary substantially in the degree of transparency that is associated with PRSPs and even more so, transparency surrounding the multi-donor budget support (MDBS) that is provided if and when a PRSP is produced. I have had some direct involvement in this process in one West African country, which is referred to in the following blog posts on transparency and PRSPs
http://mandenews.blogspot.com/2004/08/open-government-and-open-aid.html
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