Crafting Bolivia's PRSP: 5 Points of View
| Author | Ramiro Cavero Uriona, Juan Carlos Requena P., Juan Carlos Núñez, Rosalind Eyben, and Wayne Lewis |
Bolivia's poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP), known in Spanish as La Estrategia Boliviana de Reducción de la Pobreza, was issued in March 2001. Building on an earlier national dialogue that began with the new government in 1997, it formulates a four-pronged plan for sustainable growth, social development, institutional strengthening, and eradication of drug (coca) production and trade.
Soon after the World Bank and the IMF launched the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in September 1999, Bolivia drafted an interim PRSP in preparation for the forthcoming dialogue, but it was seen as lacking clear priorities, and its preparation was not considered participatory enough. A new national dialogue was launched in April 2000 to promote participation in the preparation of the PRSP. Before the national dialogue began, civil society groups-including the Jubilee 2000 Forum of Non-governmental Organizations and groups representing small producers, indigenous peoples, and miners-prepared their own dialogues.
The national dialogue itself was designed as a bottom-up effort, with discussions taking place first at the municipal level, then at the regional level, and last, at the national level. The discussions covered four topics: the causes of poverty; mechanisms for the allocation of HIPC resources; citizens' participation in monitoring the use of HIPC debt relief resources; and follow-up and periodic renewal of the national dialogue. The conclusions guided the government in its drafting of the full PRSP. After a draft was approved by the Bolivian cabinet in February 2001, the paper was discussed with the public and revised in a few areas-particularly those dealing with indigenous, gender, and environmental issues-based on public feedback.
To learn more about Bolivia's PRSP, Finance & Development asked five people who were heavily involved in its preparation for their views on what worked and what didn't.
The dialogue process was very successful in that it allowed communities to participate and explain their problems, needs, and priorities. One shortcoming was that organizations representing certain groups-such as homesteaders, peasants, and indigenous peoples-did not fully attend and were represented by local authorities.
Participants in the dialogue process reached agreement on a number of issues, as follows:
* Greater decentralization would be necessary. This requires giving more responsibility to municipalities and local communities. The resources deposited in the municipalities' accounts are now unrestricted (within a range of possibilities, or a "menu" of options), allowing communities themselves to decide on the allocation of resources.
* As Bolivia's most reliable institution, the Catholic Church should take the lead by organizing civil society to exercise social control.
* Talking, persuading stakeholders, and working together are necessary for formulating and implementing social policies; thus, the national dialogue process should be institutionalized.
These agreements served as the starting point for the preparation of the PRSP. However, the poverty reduction strategy-like any other strategy-could not be prepared by a very large group of people with highly dissimilar needs. Consequently, although the PRSP was based on a consultative process and was widely disseminated, its actual preparation was entrusted to government professionals.
The review process was formalized in its entirety in the new national dialogue law, whose implementation began quickly with the establishment of regulatory standards and the adoption of concrete actions. The dialogue law follows four basic principles:
* Attracting more resources from both debt relief and reform of the Investment and Development Funds, to facilitate the receipt of resources from international cooperation agencies.
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