Opening Remarks:Ms. Elene Makonnen, Principal Advisor, Office of the Executive Secretary, ECA

Rapid and broad based economic growth is critical for poverty reduction. Yet, growth in many African countries has been well below the 7% GDP growth rate required to reduce poverty by half by 2015. Growth strategies can succeed in reducing poverty if they are pro-poor and lead to rapid and sustained improvements in human capacities (health and education) and generate greater opportunities for income generation (through access to markets). Hence, the effectiveness of poverty reduction strategies depends in large part on the comprehensiveness of the growth strategies---including macroeconomic, social and structural policies---pursued.

This session will examine the following issues:

• To what extent long-term growth strategies (such as trade and industrial policy, private sector development, technology and innovation, manufacturing incubators) are reflected in PRSPs?
• What does it mean for economic growth to be pro-poor?
• How best to design comprehensive and pro-poor growth strategies?
• The extent to which the social sector health, education, gender have been integrated into PRSPs and how best to do that.

• "The Missing Middle" Getting from Growth to Poverty Targets
  Mr. Patrick Asea, Director, Economic and Social Policy Division, ECA.

• "How Pro-poor are the Growth Strategies in PRSPs: The Experience of Zambia"
  Mr. James Mulungushi, Director of Planning, Ministry of Finance and National Planning, Zambia.

• "Lessons for PRSPs from South Africa's National Poverty Reduction Strategy"
  Mr. Tiro Holele, Deputy Director, Poverty Relief Programme, Dept. of Social Development, South Africa

An important objective of the PRSP is to direct resources to priority areas that have a significant impact on poverty. This objective thus assigns an important role to the budget in efforts to reduce poverty. Governments are expected to ensure that the PRSPs are duly integrated into their budgets and are fully costed. Budgets also have to consider the likely inter-temporal tradeoffs of the current emphasis on achieving quick results - by redirecting public expenditure to social sectors - for sustaining poverty reduction programmes over the longer term.

Specifically, the meeting will examine the following questions:

• To what extent are PRSP objectives fully costed?
• How realistic are the costing scenarios underlying the PRSPs?
• What are the trade-offs between macroeconomic stability and higher public expenditures to meet PRSP goals?
• Whether and to what extent the MTEF serves as an institutionalised vehicle for medium term public expenditure planning.

• "Costing the PRSP: Lessons from Country Case-Studies"
  Mr. Kasirim Nwuke, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, ECA

• " Costing the PRSP and macroeconomic stability in a post-genocide economy The Rwanda experience"
  Mr. Vincent Karega, Director of Strategic Planning & Poverty Reduction Monitoring, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Rwanda

• "Costing the PRSP: Lessons from Ghana"
  Prof. George Gyan-Baffour, SeniorTechnical Advisor, National Development Planning Commission, Ghana

Country-wide participation in PRSPs presents a paradigm shift from ineffective donor-led, conditionality-driven aid to a system that puts the recipient in the drivers seat. The emphasis on participation and ownership should improve policy design and reduce the probability of non-implementation of policies. Participation, therefore, is a mechanism through which these stakeholders effectively engage in the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of the PRSP.

This session will examine:

• Is country-wide partnership in development planning working in practice?
• To what extent are the concerns of the poor consistent (or at variance) with the policy components of PRSPs?
• To what extent has the quest for broad-based participation replaced or undermined the fledgling institutions of representative democracy?
• How best to institutionalise participation in order to ensure that the variance between the aspirations of the poor and the policy content of the PRSP is minimized?

• A short film presentation on "Reflecting the concerns of the poor in PRSPs -Lessons from Uganda"

• Invited paper - "Institutionalizing Participation in the PRSP".
  Dr. Walter Eberlei, University of Duisburg, Germany

• "Broadening Participation: What Lessons from Ethiopia?"
  Mr. Getachew Adem, Head, Economic Policy & Planning, Ministry of Finance & Economic Development, FDR Ethiopia

Chair: Mr. Hakim Ben Hammouda, Director, ECA-Office, Central Africa
Rapporteur: Mr. Arsene Kouadio, CIRES, Côte d'Ivoire

Enormous gaps exist in most African countries in the capacity to undertake poverty analysis, design and implement anti-poverty programs, and monitor their impacts. Gaps also exist in the area of budget preparation and financial management. For PRSPs to be effective anti-poverty tools, there is a need to strengthen capacity in these countries. Key specific skills required are capacities for establishing comprehensive and coherent budgets and medium-term expenditure plans, economic forecasting, and debt management. Technical capacity for auditing and accounting - the backbone of government accountability - also requires greater emphasis. This session will thus consider the following issues:

• How can efforts be scaled up to establish better statistical systems to monitor and evaluate progress;
• What mix of skills and knowledge is required for countries to incorporate long-term growth strategies - including trade and industrial policy, technological progress and structural transformation - in PRSPs?
• How can capacity building in the technical areas needed for effective implementation of MTEF and the PRSP be scaled up?

• "Capacity needs: The experience of Burkina Faso" - Mr. Bere Christian

• "Capacity Needs: The experience of Malawi" - Mrs. P.D. Zimpita, Deputy Chief Economist, National Economic Council, Malawi.

• "Capacity Needs for Poverty Analysis: Lessons From Nigeria's Poverty Alleviation Program" - Mr. Steve K. Aborishade, Assistant Director/Multilateral Institutions, Ministry of Finance, Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

It has long been recognized that income levels in Africa are too low to generate the domestic resources needed for rapid growth-with-poverty reduction and that this gap can be filled by official financing, especially in those countries which are so resource poor that they are unlikely to be the destination of private foreign capital. PRSP now serves as a framework for donor assistance.

However, for aid to be effective, it must be aligned with and supportive of domestic policies. In this session, we will examine:

• Overall donor support for the PRSP process, especially the degree to which donors are making their aid policies, practices and programs consistent with country PRSP;
• Whether aid is used as a conditionality to exert a major influence on domestic policy design;
• The quantity and composition of donor resources; and
• The cost to recipient countries of reporting on donor assistance.

The outcome of this session will be a set of recommendations on how best to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of donor resources.

• "Donor Harmonization: Lessons from Country Missions"
  SPA Co-chairs

• "Donors Harmonization: The Experience of Kenya - Ms. Aoko, Deputy Chief Economist/Head of PRSP/MTEF, Ministry of Finance, Government of Kenya

• "Donors and the PRSP in Senegal" - Ms. N. C. Fall, Program Director, West African Rural Foundation (WARF), Senegal

Chair: Ms. Elene Makonnen, ECA
Super Rapporteur: Professor Fantu Cheru, American University

This session will wrap up the meeting and summarize the major lessons teased out from the various country experiences. It was also examine the issues that may frame the next meeting of the Learning Group.