Parliament’s Increasing Role in Poverty Reduction Strategies

Parliaments play a crucial role in improving governance and public service delivery. Those countries with strong parliamentary oversight have been able to shape policy directions and priorities. The most recent Capacity Development Brief (265 kb pdf)explores the growing role of parliaments in crafting poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) since the process was first launched in 1999. Although the parliaments of many developing countries still have a long way to go before they will maximize their ability to strengthen the outcomes from country-level pov­erty reduction strategies (PRSs), the first decade of the poverty reduction strategy process has produced some important examples of how parliaments, with help from the Parliamentary Strengthening Program of the World Bank Institute, and its partners, can successfully get involved.

 

Given their representative, oversight, and legislative functions, parliaments are uniquely posi­tioned to understand and monitor the effects of poverty and act as a bridge among the government, private sec­tor, and civil society. Parliaments can serve as a forum for multiparty consensus and thus for countrywide support and ownership.

 

In the early years of the PRS, parliaments were only marginally involved in the PRS process. During the past seven years, WBI and its part­ners have organized multiple learning programs for parliamentarians from develop­ing countries focusing on parliamentary strengthening related to budget and financial oversight. Parliaments are now increasing their contributions to the PRS process by making use of these capacity-building efforts. The following cases of Tanzania and Malawi illustrate how parliamentary committees and parliaments can develop in terms of policy leverage and leadership.

 

Tanzania. The involvement of Tanzania’s parliament in setting priorities for the PRS exercise resulted in marked savings for the country. During the strategy discussions with members of parliament (MPs), edu­cation was often perceived as the fundamental element in poverty reduction. The proposed budget was three billion shillings, but the work was completed for 1.7 billion shillings due to the owner­ship and oversight of parliament. Driven by the elimination of school fees as part of the PRSP, the net enrollment of children aged 7 to 13 was 58.5 percent in 2000, rose to 85 percent in 2002, combined with recruitment of 7,300 new primary teachers and building of 13,000 new classrooms.

 

Malawi. The parliament of Malawi also helped the country get better results from its spending on HIV/AIDS interventions. It called for work­place programs and other HIV-related interventions in all ministries. The Health Committee for Parliament met with the Minister of Health specifically on ensur­ing utilization of funds that had been allocated. Such initiatives by parliaments have had a significant impact on deciding what direction the PRSs will take.

 

For more information contact Rick Stapenhurst at fstapenhurst@worldbank.org or visit the WBI Parliamentary Strengthening Program’s webpage.