Parliamentary Centre Contribution to World Bank/IMF PRS Review

Transcription

1 Parliamentary Centre Contribution to World Bank/IMF PRS Review Background The Parliamentary Centre is a non-profit making organization that provides support services to Parliaments in Canada, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The Centre s involvement with PRSPs is mostly in Africa and Asia. In all cases, the objective of the Centre is to enhance the capacity of Parliamentarians to exercise their legislative, representational and oversight roles. This contribution to the PRSP review is thus based on work done with the various Parliaments in Africa and in Cambodia. AFRICA PROGRAM The capacity strengthening objective is achieved through training of parliamentarians and staff on issues relating to poverty reduction, gender equality and anti-corruption. In order to facilitate information sharing on best practices, the program operates on the basis of networks that bring together parliamentarians from the 18 countries in which the program is operating. The poverty reduction network has been particularly active in training parliamentary committees and staff involved in oversight on poverty reduction programs. 1. Strengthening the Medium term Orientation of the PRS A review of the PRS process conducted by the Parliamentary Centre in 2004 in four countries: Ghana, Malawi, Niger and Tanzania seem to suggest that while there is enthusiasm about the PRS process as a new approach with the potential to significantly reduce poverty, there is a great deal of concern from various stakeholders about the need to strengthen the medium-term orientation of the process to make it more targeted, more focused and better directed to the needs of the poor. A number of countries are losing focus PRSPs have in fact become mere slogans for accessing funds, in most cases for spending in not-very-important priority areas. The key challenge is how to strengthen the medium-term orientation of the PRS? The involvement of parliamentarians in a conference on Economic Policy Choices for Poverty Reduction held at Wilton Park in June 2004, revealed a consensus among parliamentarians and members of the academia about the initial PRS priorities of some countries having been dictated by the desire to quickly qualify for access to HIPC funds. This had resulted in achievement of economic growth rates of between 4 and 5%, but without significant impact on the poor. The focus on high growth rates in some cases implied adoption of policies designed to reduce labour costs by retrenching some of the workers and this was impacting negatively on women if the retrenched are men. Some men were taking out their frustration on women through domestic violence which affects women s health, thereby reducing their capacity to contribute to the growth of the economy. Through policy information sharing and poverty monitoring training provided by organizations such as the Parliamentary Centre, there has been greater engagement of the civil society and parliamentarians in the PRS review, resulting in a much more homegrown PRSP in Tanzania for instance. However, honest dialogue between aid donors and 1

2 recipient countries on feasible targets was deemed essential for the success of PRSPs. The Wilton Park conference drew special attention to one of the millennium goals which is to increase primary school enrolment for girls as a strategy for poverty reduction and questioned the linkage between high primary school enrolment and poverty reduction in view of the high drop out rate for girls at secondary school level. According to observations made by parliamentarians, this was the strategy being adopted by most countries implementing PRSPs. The conference also served to highlight the incoherence between pronouncements about reducing poverty through gender equality and the reality on the ground. It is acknowledged in most PRSPs that women constitute the majority of the poorest of the poor, but there are often no specific policies for addressing poverty among women which is mostly rooted in culture, religion and administrative practices. The conclusion was that policies aimed at gender equality were necessary for effectiveness of PRSPs in reducing poverty. 1.2 Comment on Future Action One key strategy comes to mind: strengthening the linkages between active civil society groups and key stakeholders like parliaments so that together they can create a common platform to re-orient the Executive towards key pro-poor priority areas. This kind of approach is beginning to emerge in Malawi. From interaction with Malawi Parliamentarians, there is concern about the attainment of MDGs and the subsequent poverty reduction, particularly in view of the effect of HIV/AIDS on the quantity and quality of school teachers. Increased school enrolment and improved school facilities are likely to have very little impact on poverty without the question of the necessary human resources being addressed. Tanzania provides a great example of parliamentary involvement in shaping PRSP policies with the successful expansion of basic primary education and important increase in enrolment rates on which MPs played a significant role by making education a priority and by mobilizing efforts in their constituencies. In order to achieve positive change by parliamentarians on PRS policies, strong committee chairs are important to develop consensus-building within parliamentary committees that encourage committee MPs to work together to achieve common results. Although parliamentary committees are not heavily focused on macroeconomics, there is evidence that committees are becoming increasingly engaged and interested in the macroeconomic dimensions of PRSPs leading to increasing potential for macroeconomic policy focus in the future. 2

3 2. Utilizing the PRS as a mutual accountability framework between Countries and Donors PRSPs are very powerful documents that could ensure mutual accountability between a country and its development partners. For one important reason, the document is largely country-driven, with governments drawing up their various strategies and promising to spend in pro-poor priority areas of their economies and in turn, donors making funds available through the HIPC initiative, for instance. In addition, donors also promise to be guided by the document in providing much needed funds for spending in priority areas. So far, in most countries, this is not happening on both sides of the bargain. While most governments are getting their priorities wrong, some donors are also failing to come up with their side of the bargain leading to a number of shortfalls in certain key areas. The fact that most donors are failing to meet the 0.7% ODA target is a clear testimony. The Parliamentary Centre Africa program is actively involved with the Ghana Parliamentary committees responsible for oversight on PRSPs. It has been observed that Parliament is excluded from the dialogue between countries and donors. Donors (including the IMF in its HIPC procedures) expect Parliaments to play an oversight role, which is an impossible task given the lack of or inadequate information they receive. Executives and the international community should provide for a mechanism that ensures the participation of Parliamentarians right from the inception of the program. Accountability between IFIs and countries are compromised by unilateral conditionalities, such as World Bank and IMF opposition to agricultural subsidies provided by developing countries such as Ghana 1. In Ghana, an effective PRSP requires a strong public service for poverty reduction, via improved education, health delivery and agricultural extension. Good governance is essential and in the context of Ghana, this implies better-paid, professional and high performance civil service. However, there is IMF pressure on countries to reduce costs which hampers the development of such a high performance civil service. In a bid to encourage the sharing of information on empowerment of women, the ACPSP has facilitated workshops to address poverty among women and the use of micro finance as a strategy for poverty reduction. Most PRS implementing countries have adopted micro finance as a strategy for poverty reduction, but the insistence by donors on sustainability of micro finance was viewed as the reason for high interest rates being charged for micro finance. Funds made available for micro finance were at times provided as grants, but were being channeled to recipients at interest rates ranging between 20 and 28 % in Mali. Instead of alleviating poverty among the poorest of the poor, micro finance had become accessible to groups that are relatively better off instead of the target group. The analysis of effectiveness of micro finance has been encouraging because of some of the recommendations made with respect to the role of parliamentarians. We anticipate 1 Deliberations of the Videoconference Policy Dialogue Series for Selected Committees of the Parliament of Ghana by the World Bank Institute (WBI) and the Parliamentary Centre (Canada), October,

4 greater analysis of the budget in some parliaments of resources being made available for micro finance and the conditions attached to such resources, which should improve the effectiveness of micro finance in contributing to poverty reduction. The Uganda Budget law, which allows intervention by parliament during the budget process, is an example which will hopefully be adopted by other parliaments for ensuring consistency between provision of donor funds and the expected results. 2.2 Suggestions emanating from PC workshops For PRSPs to be a useful mutual accountability framework, both parties have to honor their side of the bargain. Otherwise, donors in particular, lose the moral authority to ensure accountability. Ensuring accountability also demands that there be a very broad level of participation in the process. This way, various stakeholders can have a say in holding their governments accountable not only to citizens but also to donors. Micro finance contribution to poverty reduction requires development of a micro finance sector which can reach large numbers of the poor on a sustainable basis. Instead of the current trend of micro finance being both profit and socially oriented, the profit aspect should be reviewed if the poorest of the poor are to benefit. 3. Broadening and deepening meaningful participation Participation has emerged as one of the huge challenges of the PRS process. The process by its nature is supposed to be participative but in most countries from the consultative stage to implementation, the process has been anything but participatory. In most cases, key stakeholders such as civil society groups, community based organizations, and most importantly, parliaments; have been excluded from all stages of the process. To rescue PRSPs, there is an urgent need to ensure a broad range of participation with focus on target groups. Stakeholders should be well-organized and have a real contribution, especially Parliament. As representatives of the poor, parliamentarians are charged with the responsibility to analyse and approve the budget (which is guided by the PRS document); and among all stakeholders, they have a mandate to hold the Executive accountable for its commitment to the poor. In Ghana, and in other countries where we work, experience has shown that in order to further Parliament s involvement in the PRSP process, there is a need for a pressure group within the Parliamentary structure such as a Committee or Sub-Committee which will champion the cause of the program and thus ensure the achievement of the policy objectives. The IFIs do not specify the participatory process and hence Parliament must fill the gap by providing oversight guidelines for participation. Despite being excluded from the initial PRSP process, the Ghana Parliament has become engaged in the PRS process through the establishment of a Special Committee on the PRS. The Committee liaises regularly with the NDPC and has managed to enlist the support of Ministries in identifying budgets earmarked for poverty-reduction. The committee intends to follow-up with investigative field visits on budget expenditure information provided by ministries. 4

5 The Committee is however handicapped by the lack of funds for these monitoring initiatives. 2 This is also the case in Tanzania where the Poverty Reduction Committee works very closely with the Vice-President s office which is responsible for coordinating poverty reduction work in that country. In addition, parliamentary committees came together through our intervention, to form a special committee that represented parliament in Tanzania s PRSP review, which took place in October Involvement of civil society It is crucial to develop mechanisms and means that ensure community involvement in governance related issues. Our current governance structure has weak mechanisms for the participation of the poor. Civil Society Organization (CSO) led monitoring is an effective tool but there is the need to build the capacity of CSOs to achieve their potential. SEND foundation (Ghana), through its grass roots based framework for monitoring HIPC funds for example, provides a useful platform for both state and non state actors to dialogue and allows sharing of information to ensure the poor are at the centre of the process. Accountability is undermined by poor governance practices and communication systems that are weak. The poor must exercise their right, which they can through access to information as well as a platform. Collaboration between Parliament and CSOs can facilitate that access to information. CSO can also adopt advocacy strategies which include presentations to parliamentary committees, joint monitoring activities between parliamentary committees and CSOs, presentation of memos to committees and making inputs to inform MPs questions to Ministers. Through a training program that the Centre organizes jointly with the Institute for Policy Alternatives, Ghana, an effort is made to involve CSOs from across Africa in poverty monitoring activities undertaken by Parliament. The aim here is to create a common platform for Parliament and CSOs so that together, they could influence poverty policy in their respective countries. This is emerging in Malawi, as our study had revealed. The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) as well as the Economic Association of Malawi (ECAMA) have been working closely with the Budget and Finance Committee of the Parliament of Malawi on poverty reduction issues. 3.2 The poor The process of consultation did not really represent decision making in the PRS. Although credible information came out of the consultation, this in itself did not lead to the inclusion of the poor in the decision making process. 3 2 Ghana, The Way Forward - Lessons Learned and Suggestions by the Committees of Ghana s Third Parliament, Conclusions from the GPCSPII 2004 Annual Committee Workshop Retreat, Elmina, July 9-11,

6 Broad civil society groups/ngos are often not speaking for the very poor. Participation needs to be extensive and diverse. In order to truly reach the poor, the PRSP must fully reflect decentralized structures of governance. In recent times, there have been calls to make district and municipal assemblies partners in the fight against poverty by giving local government authorities across Africa, the power and tools to effectively influence poverty reduction activities at the grass-roots level. When this happens, the poor can have a voice. There is need for centralized strategy to fight poverty vis-à-vis the localized nature of the work that must take place. The poor feel powerless; have little access to information and generally there is weak coordination in the disbursement of HIPC funds. Parliamentarians as representatives of citizens across a country can play an important role to sensitize and raise awareness about the PRSP programs and to represent the interest of the poor and the marginalized. Direct parliamentary outreach to and interaction with the poor is certainly not vibrant but parliamentary relations with community-based civil society groups is growing in many countries and this provides an entry point to create linkages with the poor. The PRSP monitoring and evaluation training organized by the Africa program for parliamentarians provides a unique opportunity for parliamentarians and civil society to travel to the local level and dialogue with the communities including the poor, women s groups and youth. Such interaction provides real opportunity for parliamentarians to listen to the concerns and needs of the poor and to report such concerns to their government. The representative function of parliamentarians engages them to serve as ombudsmen and to consult the poor and marginalized. 3.3 Suggestions emanating from ACPSP Training Program The Institute for Policy Alternatives (IPA), Ghana, in collaboration with the Africa Program of the Parliamentary Centre, has established a training and capacity-building initiative to strengthen the collaboration between Parliaments and CSOs on oversight of PRSs. The first training component is targeted at MPs who are members of key oversight committees (such as Public Accounts, Finance and, in some cases, PRSP Monitoring Committees), and the secretariat of these committees. This aspect of the program is meant to raise the awareness of MPs to better understand and absorb the emerging results of the PRSP process, and to effectively evaluate its progress. The training also explores issues concerning civil society how they work, and how collaboration can be established with them, and through them to communities. 3 A Workguide on Poverty Reduction and Parliament for Ghana Committees. Conclusions from the Workshop Retreats and Videoconference sessions of the Ghana Parliamentary Committee Support Project, February

7 The second component of the training program targets parliamentary staff and representatives of organized civil society, who will emerge to become core parliamentary research and interface staff, bridging the gap between parliaments and the civil society they represent. This course is designed to give the trainees a deep understanding of issues surrounding PRSPs as well as the monitoring and evaluation of poverty. A related objective is to build the skills of the parliamentary assistants and CSO representatives to work with MPs in shaping relations with civil society as part of the process of enhancing poverty-focused social and public accountability. 3.4 Gender In the Ghana PRSP there is a degree of gender analysis of poverty situation, for example, the PRSP notes that poverty is predominantly a feminine phenomenon; however there is a weak link between the PRSP and the budget allocation to gender sensitive programs. For instance in the 2004 Ghanaian budget, a mere 0.14% is voted for discretionary expenditure on women, from which the running cost of MOWAC (Ministry of Women and Children) is covered. Gender is not mainstreamed (page iv The focus will be on interventions that have not been mainstreamed including measures aimed to promote gender balance and equity ) Data is not gender-disaggregated except in education Programs for improving gender inequities are subsumed under Special Programs for the Vulnerable and Excluded (pp ) Programs are very broad and gender neutral (eg expansion of social security schemes, slum upgrading, disaster management, coordinating service delivery) 4 There is a clear need to establish the relationship between women and poverty, analyze policy sensitivity to gender concerns and the need to monitor the implementation and assure that gender sensitivities are adhered to. At the Wilton Park conference referred to earlier, the participatory problem within PRSPs was discussed in terms of women s greater involvement in food production for domestic consumption, but agriculture policies in PRSPs focusing on cash crops. The monitoring of poverty trends is thus excluding the majority of the poor and providing a distorted analysis and subsequent policies. The denial of land rights to women who are mostly engaged in agriculture was viewed as another major source of women s exclusion from the poverty reduction process. Developments in Vietnam on land redistribution policies which require names of both husband and wife for registration of a land ownership certificate are some of the ways forward in addressing gender inequality and making PRSPs more participatory which parliamentarians appreciated and hope to introduce in their own countries. 4 Ahadzie, William. A Gender Perspective of PRSP and the 2004 Budget. Paper presented at the GPCSPII Annual Committee Workshop Retreat, Swedru, Feb. 13,

8 NEPAD, MDGs and national development programs like the GPRS will continue to be elusive if deliberate attempts are not made to address key issues like gender equality. 3.5 Role for women parliamentarians The Parliamentary Centre s PRSP assessment revealed the poor performance in practice of the national PRSPs with respect to gender equality concerns. One surprising finding with respect to all four parliaments was that the Parliamentary Caucus of Women MPs which might have been expected to take some leadership on gender equality in PRSPs, did not seem to focus on this concern. Despite this gap at the level of women caucuses, there is evidence of important parliamentary leadership on gender equality in the PRSP through committee work. In Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania, women-led committees were most successful in strongly focusing on achieving PRSP gains for women and on taking on a leadership role on gender equality and the country s PRSP Enhancing linkages between the PRS, MTEF, and budgets These linkages are crucial if PRSPs are to have any meaning. Given that PRSPs have emerged as the key development frameworks in various countries, all national spending initiatives should be intricately linked to the dictates of the document. But the current trend in most countries, particularly in Africa is that while there appear to be links between national expenditure frameworks and the PRS on paper, when it comes to implementation, the Executive in most cases, ignores guidelines set in national expenditure frameworks. Spending sometimes takes place outside the key priority areas set in the PRS. In a number of African countries for instance, spending on Executive largesse takes precedence over education and health and other pro-poor priority areas. Enhancing linkages and ensuring that such linkages are reflected in practice could only happen if there is broad participation, transparency and accountability on the part of the Executive. The PRSP serves as the broad policy framework for Ghana but experiences shared by former Members of Parliament show very little relationship between the PRSP and the budget. In Tanzania, the budget enveloped in many poverty-related ministries are much under-utilized because of cash constraints that emerge throughout each year, and available cash is often allocated subject to short-term political pressures rather than PRSP priorities and plans. The goal of moving toward operation MTEF budgets has also not yet been achieved. Tanzania and Malawi continue to operate on cash-based systems that cannot seriously offer three-year projections. 6 5 Parliamentary Centre, PRSPs in Africa: Parliaments and Economic Policy Performance published by GTZ State and Democracy Division, p.6 6 Ibid. p. 11 8

9 In Ghana, the budget has traditionally over concentrated on the macro-economic situation, broadly reviewing sectoral performances and projections for the ensuing year. It does not reflect employment and unemployment issues, but focuses more on the private sector through regulatory framework. Participants suggest that budget needs to go beyond the provision of regulatory environment. Members of Parliament stressed the need for bipartisan recognition that the problem of poor economic performance over the years (especially as revealed by the non-micro economic indicators) is not limited to any one political regime. Access to more analytically relevant data was deemed important. It is suggested that budgets adopt the use pro-poor/wellbeing indicators such infant and maternal mortality targets, instead of the current macro-economic indicators such as exchange rates and inflation. Another challenge is posed by the unpredictability of loans and grants from donors. The gap between pledges and the actual amount disbursed makes revenue projection a difficult task. The problem is further compounded by the process of aid flow, which is often through projects that are approved individually. The recent major shift by most donors to budgetary support as opposed to project specific approach, should improve the situation. 4.1 Central planning In Ghana, the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) is not playing the overarching policy planning role it should and this impacts negatively on implementation of the PRSP. Parliamentarians also agreed on the need for institutional capacity improvement of NDPC. (But the VP s office in Tanzania is doing a good job!). For the long term, there is a clear need for clarity of development ideology and the adoption of more innovative budgeting and planning strategies that would make financing development from domestic sources possible and consequently make debt management sustainable. 4.2 HIPC Some countries have benefited greatly from HIPC unlike Ghana, which has the lowest level of HIPC resources (only 2% of the allocation had reached the country by end of 2003) due to implementation problems on the Ghanaian side and conditionalities on the donor side. For HIPC assistance to be effective there is need for fewer constraints. There is also a failure in budget-management to integrate HIPC resources into pro-poor spending consistent with PRSP plans. HIPC resources are often allocated by the Cabinet or the President s office and are not always distributed based on pro-poor priorities. 4.3 The Budget Cycle Process and Parliament There is a complex mix of strengths and weaknesses evident in the budget oversight role of parliament. MPs and their committees are engaged in budget work and see how it could improve PRSP performance but that are also aware of the weaknesses of their 9

10 commitments in practice, and have certainly not been able to develop the leverage to act decisively within the budget cycle process. Some MPs see ways to improve their strength, through earlier interventions in budget planning, through stronger staff support and expert advice and through longer periods for scrutiny and public hearings on the budget. Such improvements are long-term challenges but support to Parliament in the area of budget oversight if crucial to ensure proper authority by the people s representatives over the annual spending and revenue plans that make up the national budget. The budget should represent where parliamentary authority and poverty reduction policies come together in the form of a well-constructed and widely-understood strategy to achieve socio-economic results that can be monitored over time Tailoring the PRS Approach to Conflict-affected and Fragile States These groups of countries suffer elevated levels of poverty and urgently need strategies that will take them out of poverty, lest they risk falling back to conflict or in the case of fragile states they risk falling into the not-ending conflict trap. But in developing PRS for such countries, special attention needs to be paid to their peculiar circumstances. Being fragile, they need strategies that will not only address poverty issues but also issues that give rise to conflict. In brief, the document should be one that is conflict preventionsensitive and as much as possible, should be country-specific since issues that give rise conflicts vary from one country to another. The regional workshop held in Rwanda in September 2004 on Poverty in Post-conflict Countries provided some insights to the effect of PRSPs in such countries as Rwanda and the great lakes region. The workshop established a link between high rates of HIV/AIDS and poverty in post conflict countries due to following conflict factors: Population displacement Breakdown of family structures and tradition Severe deprivation forcing women and girls to engage in prostitution High incidence of rape which is used as a weapon Collapse of the health system The high rate of HIV/AIDS among women indicates their vulnerability and the need for PRSPs to give priority to fighting poverty among women, which is exacerbated by HIV/AIDS. Micro finance as a strategy for reducing poverty among women is encouraged, but if it is advanced as a social program as opposed to maintaining sustainability by charging high interest rates. 5.1 Suggested PRSP priorities for Post-conflict countries The immediate need for post-conflict countries is a reconstruction and restoration of social infrastructure. CAMBODIA PROGRAM The Parliamentary Centre is the Canadian Executing Agency for the CIDA-funded Cambodia-Canada Legislative Support Project (CCLSP). Throughout the past few years, 7 Ibid. p

11 the CCLSP has been incorporating PRSP-related work into its activities. The facilitation of dialogue between parliamentarians, civil servants and the poor through participation in these activities has served to identify some of the weaknesses, particularly with respect to the implementation and monitoring of PRSPs. Before the Cambodian government released its Final PRSP in March of 2003, two workshops were organized by the CCLSP in October and December 2002 (the October Workshop was carried out in conjunction with the World Bank Institute). The workshops targeted Parliamentary Committees dealing with economic matters and identified the following as some of the weaknesses of PRSPs: Consultations on PRSPs between Parliament and the private sector were inadequate Parliamentarians were largely uninformed about the PRS process Parliamentarians lack of capacity to analyse budgets in general and problems in establishing linkages between PRSPs and the budget Inconsistencies between the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS) and budget allocations High interest rates imposed by credit institutions drive many Cambodians deeper into poverty and should therefore be addressed in the NPRS The absence of human security considerations in PRSPs Too much emphasis on tax instead of good governance as an incentive for attracting FDI Lessons learnt from the two workshops can contribute to the following PRS review themes: 1. Strengthening the medium-term orientation of the PRS approach In the Cambodian case, Parliament is not providing sufficient oversight or monitoring of the PRS policies. Parliamentarians were largely excluded from the PRSP process from the beginning (of their own volition in some cases), which can be considered one of the main reasons why monitoring attempts have been weak. Although they are becoming familiar with the MDG process through some current UNDP initiatives, the linkages between MDGs and the PRSP remain weak. 2. Utilizing the PRS as a mutual accountability framework between countries and donors The exclusion of Parliaments and of civil society from the dialogue between donors and countries presents a handicap for effective accountability. The Dialogue Forum on the National Budget and its link to the PRSP addressed the accountability issue between countries and donors and attempted to bring Parliaments into the fold. Representatives from IMF, UNDP and WB addressed issues regarding their support for Cambodia's development and poverty reduction, and emphasized the importance of good governance and rule of law. They also stressed proper implementation of PRSP if Cambodia wants to be competitive and reduce poverty, and the importance of Parliamentary involvement in this process. The importance of concrete action to reach poverty reduction goals in Cambodia was underlined during the Consultative Group Meeting in Phnom Penh on December 6-7, However, this was mainly a meeting between Donors and the 11

12 Executive. Efforts to involve Parliaments in the PRS process still require a much needed boost. 3. Broadening and deepening meaningful participation Parliament, the poor and women have had limited involvement in the monitoring of the PRSPs. Forums that facilitate awareness of PRSP-related issues are necessary to bring parliamentarians, civil society and other stakeholders together. This was attempted at the October 2002 Workshop organized by the Parliamentary Centre and The World Bank Institute, which proved to be quite beneficial in bringing various stakeholders together. Another example is the Asia-Africa Symposium organized by the Parliamentary Centre in Phnom Penh in October This Symposium addressed poverty monitoring and evaluation issues and provided for sharing of experiences between regions. It also addressed various methods and tools that can be employed by parliamentarians in poverty monitoring. 4. Enhancing linkages between the PRS, MTEF, and budgets On the failure of using PRSPs as overarching policy documents and the lack of true linkages between PRSPs and national budgets, parliamentarians questioned the apparent inconsistencies between the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS) and actual government actions and expenditures, as well as budget allocations, suggesting that government should allocate more resources to health and education. The December 2002 and subsequent workshops on the Budget and PRSPs were attempts by the CCLSP to assist parliamentarians with tools that can enable them establish that link. However, specific training is required in order to come up with more lasting results. 12