Policies in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: dominance or diversity?

Elkins, Meg; Feeny, Simon

doi:10.1080/02255189.2014.899894

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Country proposals for compact funding were often informed by or directly based on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). PRSPs’ policy content represented a continuation of Washington Consensus and structural adjustment thinking but also embodied the development finance community’s transition towards a new poverty‐reduction agenda (sometimes referred to as the “New York Consensus”) that included a proactive role for civil society in the planning process and the state in pro‐poor investment (Battaile & Kayizzi‐Mugerwa, 2005; Cheru, 2006; Elkins & Feeny, 2014; Komives & Dijkstra, 2009; Sumner, 2006). Among the MCC’s first 19 compacts, 13 had some basis in PRSPs.…”

Section: Research Context Design and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are growth diagnostics biased against the poor? Evidence from the Millennium Challenge Corporation

Bhatt¹

2021

Development Policy Review

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Motivation The growth diagnostics methodology was developed to encourage context‐specific problem‐solving and priority‐setting as a substitute for the universal prescriptions that characterized the Washington Consensus era. While growth diagnostics have been praised and become popular in development planning, little is known about what they do in practice. Purpose The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a new aid agency, adopted growth diagnostics in 2007 to guide decision‐making for bilateral development assistance after forging nearly 20 agreements informed by existing Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. This study examines how the MCC’s adoption of growth diagnostics affected its development investments. Approach and methods The study used a mixed‐methods approach with primary and secondary data and an interrupted time‐series research design that compares MCC agreements designed with and without growth diagnostics. Findings The study found that growth diagnostics helped move the MCC’s investment portfolio away from multi‐sector integrated rural development programmes aimed at high‐poverty regions towards programmes in fewer sectors concentrated in urban areas with large policy and institutional reform components reminiscent of earlier structural adjustment programmes. The article explains how features of the growth diagnostic methodology largely contributed to these changes. Policy implications Development planners committed to using diagnostics should employ inclusive growth diagnostics, which modify the original diagnostic in ways that identify and target constraints to achieve pro‐poor growth.

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Section: Research Context Design and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Are growth diagnostics biased against the poor? Evidence from the Millennium Challenge Corporation

Bhatt¹

2021

Development Policy Review

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“…Bebbington et al (2007) show that the World Bank often endorses PRSPs that follow neoliberal principles. Elkins and Feeny (2014) also question the World Bank's declaration on applying the participation and ownership principles in its PRSPs. Therefore, it appears that the World Bank still retains its power when consulting recipient governments.…”

Section: Critiques Of Colonialism Imperialism and Neo-colonialismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pension Reforms in Vietnam: Voices of Local Citizenry

Nguyen,

Cordery,

Marriott

2023

Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research

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Many developing countries have reformed their national pension systems in response to ageing populations and to increase pension scheme participation. The World Bank has been active in pension reforms in developing countries since the 1990s, and Vietnamese pension reforms since 2004 have reflected many proposals of the World Banka leading international donor to Viet Nam since 1993.There have been many criticisms of the World Bank's pension privatisation proposals for developing countriesfor example, the World Bank did not take into account country-specific environmental factors such as financial market conditions and regulatory capacity, and it focused on economic growth rather than old-age poverty reduction.This research studies whether the Vietnamese pension reforms, with the World Bank as an active agent, have taken into account the concerns and expectations of an important stakeholder group: the Vietnamese people. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and a survey of Vietnamese people. The findings from interviews and the survey were analysed with reference to the World Bank's proposals for Viet Nam and changes in Vietnamese legislation. The aim of the research is to explore the extent to which the World Bank, with its global power, and the Vietnamese government, with its dependence on global finance and technical knowledge, have responded to concerns and expectations of Vietnamese people. This research adopts postcolonial theory to examine the relationship between agents with different power levels. Using terms from postcolonial theory, these agents are the neo-colonial power, the colonised, and the colonised subaltern. In seeking to hear the voices of the colonised subaltern, the research provides empirical evidence to support the claim that the neo-colonial power and the colonised ruling class have attended inadequately to the voices of the subaltern, especially the subordinate subaltern. This research finds that the more subordinate the situations of people are, the lower level of trust they show and the less willing they are to participate in a contributory pension scheme in Viet Nam. The research also finds that the World Bank's pension proposals for Viet Nam and Vietnamese pension reforms pay inadequate attention to low levels of trust in pension management, inadequate pension amounts, and the vital role of familial support for older people.These findings suggest the importance of listening to the voices of the subaltern, which should lower their resistance. Specifically, people's trust in pension management should be improved if developing countries want to increase pension participation, especially for the groups who are likely to be poor in old age, such as people with informal employment and with lower educational attainment. Moreover, the more balanced priorities in goals to better match people's views and concerns can be helpful for agents with power in order to achieve the mission of poverty alleviation. 3.3.3 Voluntary, privately managed pension schemes (the third pillar) 3.4 Pe...

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“…Many financial products and services are formed by microfinance that has made it possible for the people of low-income to turn out to be clients of a banking mediator. Aligning to quality of life, poverty reduction is an essential feature of global economic development policy (Elkins and Feeny, 2014). Despite substantial growth in global economic output in last 50 years, wealth disparities between regions and within countries have increased significantly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microfinance models in improving 'quality of life': empirical analysis on Indian perspective

Roy

Mohanty

2020

IJBIR

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Poverty reduction is a global issue. In India, this issue is a priority and calls for critical and urgent attention. Microfinance as an approach is considered important for empowerment of unreached people's social and economic status through socio-psychological and financial intermediation. Despite the fact that microfinance institutions have assumed vital part in reducing poverty; relatively a few studies are available particularly to analyse the effectiveness of 'quality of life'. The present paper aims at studying the impact of microfinance in improving the quality of life of poor people in India. Human Development Index (HDI) is used to measure development by combining indicators such as; life expectancy, educational attainment and income into a composite index, thus addressing both social and economic issues. A variety of existing models and theories were critically reviewed and a model is formulated and validated by using the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. Results show efficacy of the proposed model and evaluates the overall impact of 'quality of life' as measured through HDI. Finally, it may be concluded that the practice of microfinance program may outperform transition economies in countries like India in order to maintain the balance between social and economic benefits of the targeted people.

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Policies in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: dominance or diversity?

Cited by 8 publications

References 24 publications

Are growth diagnostics biased against the poor? Evidence from the Millennium Challenge Corporation

Are growth diagnostics biased against the poor? Evidence from the Millennium Challenge Corporation

Pension Reforms in Vietnam: Voices of Local Citizenry

Microfinance models in improving 'quality of life': empirical analysis on Indian perspective

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