Workshop for Senior Policymakers
on Poverty Reduction Strategies in Africa

Opening remarks
by
K. Y. Amoako
Executive Secretary of the
Economic Commission for Africa

Addis Ababa,
9 March 2000

Honourable Ministers,
Senior officials,
Representatives from the ADB, UNDP, World Bank, IMF and European Union,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to this workshop on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) for our countries from southern and eastern Africa. I am particularly pleased to welcome so many of our Ministers, some of whom are visiting the Economic Commission for Africa for the first time. I look forward to personally meeting and sharing perspectives with you in the course of the coming two days

The workshop takes place against the backdrop of the enhanced framework for poverty reduction put forward by the Bretton Woods Institutions. This framework envisages the preparation by individual countries of PRSPs through participatory processes. This workshop will be followed by a similar one for western and central African countries in Abidjan next week, from 13-14 March, hosted by the African Development Bank.

This process of consultation, and the in-country preparation of PRSPs, was endorsed by African leaders at the "Summit of Heads of State and Government on the Economic and Social Agenda for Africa at the Dawn of the Third Millenium" in Libreville from 18-19 January. The Summit also pledged to establish a committee to monitor implementation.

The main purpose of this workshop is to listen to you – Ministers and other senior policymakers – about the challenges involved in formulating and implementing poverty reduction strategies. The aim of the discussions here over the next two days is to promote a shared understanding of the content of the PRSPs; the process through which they are to be formulated and the role of external partners, including the Bretton Woods Institutions. It goes without saying that African ownership and direction of this process is paramount to its success.

For us at ECA, poverty reduction is central to our analytical work, as well as to the initiatives and advocacy that we undertake. Our studies show that to halve poverty by 2015 - the target agreed at the 1995 World Summit on Social Development - Sub-Saharan African economies will have to grow by an average of eight percent per annum compared to the 3.2 percent growth in GDP achieved last year. Our 1999 and 2000 annual economic reports assess the policy implications of attaining this target.

At the Joint Conference of African Finance and Planning Ministers, held here in May last year, we looked at the challenge of financing Africa’s development from the perspective of reducing poverty. As some of you may recall, among other things, the Ministerial Statement that emanated from this meeting constituted a strong African consensus on the need for a comprehensive approach to debt, ODA and financial flow issues, as an important step towards poverty reduction.

We therefore look forward to the discussions over the next two days. We hope the workshop will deepen our understanding of the PRSP process and of how member states view it. We also expect to hear from you on how ECA, as a regional institution, can best complement your efforts in this regard.

The main background paper for the workshop was dispatched to all of you in advance. I hope that you have had an opportunity to study this document. We also have with us a strong delegation of Bank and Fund staff, including the resident representatives of these agencies in your countries; to give us more detailed information about this framework. More importantly, the Bank and Fund staff are here to hear from you about your experiences and ideas; and to reflect on the potential difficulties of applying this framework in your countries. As such, it would be fair to say that all of us here today are on a steep learning curve.

As I see it, the main principles that underpin the PRSP framework - the need for country ownership, the focus on tangible outcomes, a comprehensive view of the determinants of poverty, and the emphasis on partnership – are not new. Indeed, many of you already are implementing poverty reduction strategies that reflect these principles.

What is new is that for a majority of our countries in Sub-Sahara Africa, the PRSP will be the basis for all future Bank and Fund concessional lending as well as for debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. It will also clearly have a bearing on bilateral aid. I therefore hope that we can be candid in exchanging views on the operational challenges that are associated with implementing the PRSP process, both from the perspective of countries and of the multilateral agencies.

To help us set the stage for our discussions, we have here with us Ms. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to give upon her perspectives on the issues, drawing on her tremendous experience. Ellen needs no introduction. She has served as a Finance Minister in Liberia, has worked in the World Bank, and also has had extensive experience in the private sector. Most recently, she was the Assistant Administrator and head of the Africa Bureau of the United Nations Development Programme. She also has a political perspective on the issues. We can count on her to speak with candour and with passion on the issues before us.

Without wishing to pre-empt the discussions over the next two days, and in particular Ellen, I would like to put a few issues on the table.

First, what do we understand by "country-ownership"? Meaningful ownership would no doubt entail placing communities, both urban and rural, in the driver’s seat. The task then becomes one of empowering, supporting, facilitating, and building capacity in communities to be part of the process. Given the many demands on governments, not to mention their limited resources, how do we ensure that this happens? What strategies can we devise for engaging other players that might be of assistance in empowering ordinary citizens, such as the private sector and civil society?

Third, what is the linkage between the existing national development plans and poverty reduction strategies and the PRSP process? I am sure that the last thing all of us here would want would be for the PRSPs to become some hastily developed document, artificially grafted onto existing processes, in order to ensure receipt of development assistance! Avoiding such a cynical outcome entails understanding, respecting, and building on existing processes. I am heartened that the background document recognizes the need to avoid a "one size fits all" approach.

Finally, what exactly is the link between the PRSP and external assistance and, in particular, to debt relief? How do your Excellencies see the operationalization of this link?

I hope that in the next two days we will have an opportunity to debate these and any other issues of concern. From where I sit, dialogue, listening and understanding each other’s points of view are the guiding principles.

My hope is that far from being an obstacle to badly needed external support, the PRSP can become an effective tool for channeling such resources in support of policies and programmes for poverty reduction. But this depends critically on true African ownership of the process and a shared vision of where we are going. As the instrument of the United Nations in Africa, ECA stands ready to assist in ensuring that we all move together towards the desired destination: a better life for all Africans.

With these brief remarks, I would like to call on Ellen to set the stage for our discussions.

Thank You.