Preface

An effective poverty reduction strategy would be expected to: (a) be prepared by the country; (b) focus on faster and broad-based economic growth, which requires macroeconomic stability; (c) reflect a comprehensive understanding of poverty and its determinants; (d) assist in choosing public actions that have the highest poverty impact, which are fully costed and prioritized consistent with institutional and fiscal constraints; and (e) establish outcome indicators that are set and monitored in an open and transparent way.

Most low-income countries are not immediately in a position to fully address each of the elements. While poverty reduction strategies are being developed, concessional assistance from the Bank and Fund can be based on an interim PRSP. Interim PRSPs will lay out the process for producing a fully developed PRSP, identify the gaps that need to be filled, and outline how this might be done, including the use of external assistance.

While the majority of I-PRSPs and full PRSPs to date have been prepared by African countries, the geographical spread extends to include nine countries in the Balkans and Central Asia, several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as East and South Asia, and the Middle East. The total number of papers brought to the Boards as of mid-March 2001 was 32 I-PRSPs and four full PRSPs. 

This Sourcebook is a guide to assist countries in the development and strengthening of poverty reduction strategies. It is intended only to be suggestive and to be selectively used as a resource to provide information about possible approaches. It does not provide “the answers,” which can only emerge as a result of experience, analysis and dialogue at the level of the individual country. The Sourcebook reflects the thinking and practices associated with the Comprehensive Development Framework, the World Development Report 2000/1 on Attacking Poverty, good international practices related to poverty reduction, as well as emerging experience about the effective design and implementation of PRSPs.

The usefulness of the Sourcebook in a particular country context will depend on, inter alia, whether well-developed strategies to address poverty already exist. A range of other materials will also be available in-country, including, most obviously, the country’s own poverty diagnostics, sectoral and rural development strategies, national human development reports, situation assessments of women and children, and other materials and activities supported by external partners. The existence of the Sourcebook should not be taken to imply a need to create an entirely new national blueprint—in fact the opposite is the case, and national authorities are encouraged to draw upon existing materials as much as possible. 

This Sourcebook was prepared mainly by Bank and Fund staff and reflects their experience working in various sectors and regions, although it has benefited from feedback from government officials in several African and Asian countries as a result of in-country field testing workshops, and from staff of related UN organizations.

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