OED Review of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process

This report analyzes the experience of Ethiopia with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process. The focus of the report is on evaluating the performance of the World Bank in supporting the PRSP initiative, not on appraising the authorities’ policies. The emphasis of the report is on the formulation and implementation of the PRSP until the time of the evaluation team’s mission to Ethiopia in mid-2003. The report is structured as follows: section one starts with introduction; section two describes the country context including the poverty profile, the political and economic context, national strategies and trends in development aid and aid relations; section three describes the PRSP process and includes an assessment of the relevance of the PRSP for Ethiopia, and the application of its underlying principles in Ethiopia. It concludes by presenting some preliminary evidence on its results; section four assesses the World Bank’s support to the process;(v)section five cooperation between the Bank and the Fund, including the Joint Staff Assessment. Finally, section six summarizes the main conclusions of the case study.