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Poverty Reduction Strategies Poverty Reduction Strategies and Decent Workand Decent WorkPoverty Reduction Strategies Poverty Reduction Strategies and Decent Workand Decent Work

Valter Nebuloni

ESD Programme, ITC-ILO

Turin, 6 July 2007

Valter Nebuloni

ESD Programme, ITC-ILO

Turin, 6 July 2007

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The thread The thread

Decent work Decent work

National poverty reduction strategies

National poverty reduction strategies

Global goals

(MDGs)

Global goals

(MDGs)

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Session topics Session topics

1. What are PRSs? Where do they fit?

2. Progress on PRSs to date

3. Integration of decent work into PRSs

4. ILO’s engagement with the PRS process

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1.1. What are PRSs? Where do What are PRSs? Where do they fit?they fit?

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PRSs in the development contextPRSs in the development context

Country strategies to address poverty Key events:

WSSD, 1995 First UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty

(1997-2006), proclaimed in 1995 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)

Initiative, 1996 Millennium Declaration/MDGs, 2000 Monterrey Consensus, 2002 (Finacing for

Development) Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), 2006

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HIPC and MDRIHIPC and MDRI

HIPC - Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative: To ensure deep, broad and fast debt relief and thereby contribute toward growth, poverty reduction, and debt sustainability in the poorest, most heavily indebted countries.

MDRI - Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative: To provide additional support to HIPCs to reach the MDGs.

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Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) (PRSPs)

Prepared by the member countries through a participatory process

Involving domestic stakeholders as well as external development partners

Describe the country's macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs over a three year or longer horizon to promote broad-based growth and reduce poverty, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing.

Updated every three years with annual progress reports

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I-PRSPs, PRSPs I-PRSPs, PRSPs

Interim PRSPs (I-PRSPs) summarize the current knowledge and analysis of a country's poverty situation, describe the existing poverty reduction strategy, and lay out the process for producing a fully developed PRSP in a participatory fashion.

I-PRSP(10 countries) Decision point (8 countries) PRSP Completion point (22 countries)

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PRSPs – Key featuresPRSPs – Key features

Country-driven, national ownership (public consultation)

Medium- to long term in perspective Results- and partnership-oriented

Links to public expenditure Links to development assistance Prioritized public actions

Monitoring of poverty

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Development assistance - Development assistance - Harmonisation and alignmentHarmonisation and alignment

Ownership(countries)

Alignment(development partners and countries

Harmonization(development partners)

Ownership(countries)

Alignment(development partners and countries

Harmonization(development partners)

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MDGs and PRSs MDGs and PRSs

MDGs = stipulate quantitative reductions in the various dimensions of human poverty by 2015

Translating the MDGs into action requires national frameworks; targets must be tailored

PRSs = implementation vehicle to reach the MDGs

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Q/AQ/A

To what extent are the main features of the PRS process reflected in your country? (slide 9)

What alignment issues do you consider most urgent? Why? (slide 10)

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2. Progess on PRSs to date2. Progess on PRSs to date

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PRSPs - Overall lessonsPRSPs - Overall lessons

PRS papers are not nice neat little documents Producing PRS papers is taking longer than

expected (averaging 26 months). PRS papers are now implanted into the

international development architecture as key tools for national planning and development assistance.

PRS papers are burdened with multiple and sometimes contradictory objectives

Public consultations are proving a challenge in PRS processes; it is not always clear how the dialogue influences policies and implementation.

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PRSPs - Country levelPRSPs - Country level

Both service delivery and growth are vital to strategic approaches to poverty reduction and must be addressed in PRS papers.

Social-sector public spending is increasing, especially in health, education and rural development.

Sectoral ministries have often felt excluded, although they are increasingly feeling the need to engage.

Ministries of finance (MoF) must be engaged. Decisions tend to be more connected to public expenditure; this is vital.

Parliaments and elected officials are beginning to take a growing part in the process.

Organized labour should engage. This is a major challenge as often it has not happened.

Verbal recognition of the need for development-agency coordination is prevalent, but putting it into practice is proving tough. There has been minimal progress in removing agency flags.

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PRSPs - TensionsPRSPs - Tensions

Accountability and monitoring. The challenge is to shift PRSs closer to national structures (such as parliaments) that are accountable to the public for public expenditure, away from being mainly accountability to development partners.

Everyone wants to engage with PRSs – all stakeholders want their interests included in the documents. Prioritization is however vital.

Inconsistency between the problem identification sections of PRS papers (poverty status chapters) and the proposed strategies to address them.

Most growth projections have proved over optimistic and required downward revision.

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Q/AQ/A

What focus is needed in further effort on poverty reduction?

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3. Integration of decent work into 3. Integration of decent work into PRSsPRSs

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“Give me a fair chance at a decent job” – that is what women and men are demanding. Every

policy-maker seeking to combat poverty should answer the people’s test: how will your policy advice improve the quantity and quality of jobs? This is one of the best steps

we can take to eradicate poverty once and for all.

Juán Somavia, ILO Director-General, 2004

……....

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Working out of Poverty : the decent Working out of Poverty : the decent work agenda work agenda

Rights: people in poverty need voice, representation and participation

The principal route out of poverty is work. Make employment central to economic and social policies

Integrate socially excluded communities in the labour market, and overcome discrimination

Raise the productivity and incomes of poor people (support to the informal economy)

Poor people are unprotected people. Social protection for all

Social dialogue: build partnership and integration Empower people – economically, socially and

politically.

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PRS cycle and DW PRS cycle and DW

Design (PRSP)

Review

Analysis

Implementation

Ensuring that the

Decent Work objectives

are reflected in the cycle

Ensuring that the

Decent Work objectives

are reflected in the cycle

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PRS cycle and DW - AnalysisPRS cycle and DW - Analysis

Clear understanding of poverty and its determinants; PRSPs need to include a more thorough analysis of employment and other aspects of decent work

The social partners need to be more systematically integrated into the PRS process, from this early stage onwards

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PRS cycle and DW - DesignPRS cycle and DW - Design

PRSPs need to pay more attention on the impact of growth on poverty; choice of public interventions with a high poverty reduction potential

Entitlements and equity: improve the distribution of income and assets

Decent work contributions

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PRS cycle and DW - Funding PRS cycle and DW - Funding

National budget: pro-poor public investment

Donor countries must include in their funding priorities issues related to employment, social protection, rights, representation and dialogue.

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PRS cycle and DW - PRS cycle and DW - ImplementationImplementation

Constant dialogue with national/international stakeholders

Capacity building Sound operational systems and

simplified administrative procedures

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PRS cycle an DW - Poverty PRS cycle an DW - Poverty monitoring monitoring

Poverty monitoring systems need to be strengthened, including their statistical capacity and MDG reporting.

Country ownership of indicators is key DW indicators

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Q/A Q/A

Given the existing development strategies and related institutional arrangements in your country, what are the most strategic points of influence to promote decent work?

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4. ILO’s engagement with the 4. ILO’s engagement with the PRS process PRS process

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ILO’s engagement - Indonesia ILO’s engagement - Indonesia

Actions: Capacity bldg. for constituents Technical contributions to PRS drafting process Awareness raising

Results: Final draft of PRS adopted a rights based

approach including the right to employment PRS integrated into the new five year national

development plan

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ILO’s engagement - Ghana ILO’s engagement - Ghana

Actions: GDWPP inputs into GPRS revision process

(focus: improving productivity and competitiveness through DW)

Results: Tripartite recommendations on productivity A policy paper reflecting the views of workers

and employers Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment

accessed HIPC funds to finance vocational training programmes

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ILO’s engagement - Lessons learned ILO’s engagement - Lessons learned and challenges for the future and challenges for the future

There is evidence to suggest that the national ministries concerned and the donors who influence PRSPs are increasingly receptive to some aspects of the Decent Work Agenda.

It is essential to empower and build the capacities of the ministries of labour to add value to national policy dialogues on poverty reduction.

There will also be a need – as part of DWCP processes – for developing with constituents more country-specific advocacy strategies which reach out to a broad platform including academics, parliamentarians, donors and civil society.

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… …lessons and challenges (cont.)lessons and challenges (cont.)

In addition to identifying synergies between existing ILO activities and PRS processes, it is also beneficial to identify where the Decent Work Agenda can add value to particular sector-wide strategies and public expenditure frameworks.

The dividends on the ILO investment accrue in the medium run, in terms of orientation of policy and resources towards decent work goals.

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Thank you for your kind attention Thank you for your kind attention