§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has so far been made with the initiative by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to encourage impoverished states to produce Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. [HL3091]
§ Baroness AmosThe enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, agreed in September 1999, made a direct link between debt relief and poverty reduction. As a result, all countries that are eligible for World Bank concessional lending are producing a national Poverty Reduction Strategy. These strategies will be presented as part of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) to the Boards of the World Bank and the IMF for endorsement as the basis for lending programmes. The UK will use PRSPs as the framework for our assistance and we encourage other donors to do the same.
Good poverty reduction strategies take time to produce. To qualify for HIPC debt relief, which begins at Decision Point, countries need only produce an interim PRSP. Interim PRSPs should map out how a country will draw up a full PRSP, which should be in place, and being implemented, at Completion Point. The Joint Implementation Committee, which oversees progress on the HIPC Initiative, is also taking an interest in how the Bank and Fund are taking forward PRSPs.
The World Bank and the IMF have undertaken a lot of work to develop their thinking on PRSPs through workshops and the production of guidance to staff. This new approach requires the acquisition of new skills and adoption of a more facilitative approach so that countries have ownership of their poverty reduction strategies.