Poverty Reduction and Human Rights: THE Development Challenge

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Poverty Reduction and Human RightsTHE
Development Challenge

• Judith Edstrom,
• Sector Manager, Social Development, World Bank
• Inter-Agency Workshop on Human Rights Approaches
• May 6, 2003

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Outline

• Poverty and Human Rights
• Poverty and PRSP
• PRSP and Human Rights

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Poverty and Human Rights

• From WDR 1990
• Labor-intensive growth
• Broad provision of social services
• To WDR 2000/2001
• Opportunity
• Empowerment
• Security

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Root causes of poverty

• Lack of income and assets to attain basic
  necessities
• Voiceless ness and powerlessness
• Vulnerability to adverse shocks

Poverty and Human Rights
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Opportunity as human rights

• Encouraging effective private investment
• Expanding into international markets
• Building assets of poor people
• Addressing asset inequalities across gender,
  ethnic, racial and social divides
• Getting infrastructure and knowledge to poor
  areasrural and urban
• WDR 2000

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Empowerment as human rights

• Laying political and legal basis for inclusive
  development
• Creating public administrations that foster
  growth and equity
• Promoting inclusive decentralization and
  community development
• Promoting gender equity
• Tackling social barriers
• Supporting poor peoples social capital
• WDR 2000

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Security as human rights

• Formulating modular approach to helping poor
  people manage risk
• Development national programs to prevent, prepare
  for and respond to macro risks
• Designing national systems of social risk
  management that are also pro-growth
• Addressing civil conflict
• Tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic
• WDR 2000

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Conceptual shifts in addressing poverty reduction

• Needs-based approach to rights-based approach
• Welfare economics to importance of agency
• Equality/inequality principles and analysis

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Alignment of poverty reduction and human rights

• The principles of equality of value of the
  individual and of opportunity ..lead naturally to
  an approach to development in terms of building
  an environment which provides both for growth of
  economic opportunity and for the participation of
  all people, particularly poor people, in the
  economy and society. This is essentially the
  strategic approach of the World Bank in its
  fight against poverty.
• Nicholas Stern, Chief Economist, World, Bank,
  Development and Human Rights,
• LSE Workshop, Washington, DC, March 5, 2003

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• Poverty and Human Rights
• Poverty and PRSP
• PRSP and Human Rights

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PRSPs origins and core principles

• Little progress in reducing poverty and
  inequality.
• Pressure to heighten poverty impact of
  development resources and to show results.
• Criticism that development decisions are made
  by a few, with little consultation.
• Intellectual under-pinning WDR on
  empowerment, vulnerability, security

• PRSP Core principles
• Country-driven
• Participatory
• Results oriented
• Comprehensive in scope
• Partnership-oriented
• Long term in perspective

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Substance of a PRSP

• Poverty Diagnostics
• Understand the multiple dimensions of poverty and
  their determinants
• Policy Actions
• Choose priority actions to reduce poverty, in the
  short and longer term
• Indicators and Monitoring
• Set targets and indicators of progress,
  systematically monitor results and feedback into
  decision making

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Encouraging early experiences

• Country ownership as the guiding principle
• growing sense of country ownership
• Poverty reduction has gained a more prominent
  place in policy discussions
• Openness and transparency of the PRS process is
  important
• More open dialogue within governments and with
  civil society
• Donor community embraces PRS principles

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Key challenges OF PRSP

• Strengthen institutionalize participation
• Identify policies to accelerate growth
• Choose appropriate indicators targets with
  monitoring results fed back to decision making
• Improve prioritization within strategies, link
  to the budget
• Improve public expenditure management systems
• Alignment of assistance programs, including IDAs

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• 1. Participation
• Institutionalization of participation
• linked to regular government decision making
• eg Ethiopias Private Public Consultation Forum
  established by law, to meet at least quarterly
• Bolivias National Dialogue Law to foster local
  accountability
• However, what is manageable and realistic varies
  substantially across countries depending on
• Nature of existing development dialogue
• Nature and capacity of parliament, civil society
  and local governments

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• 2. Growth
• All PRSPs acknowledge importance of growth for
  poverty reduction in the future. Many also focus
  on income/non-income inequalities.
• Yet analysis of linkages between growth poverty
  is weak
• Only half have analyzed past growth-poverty
  record
• Exceptions Ethiopia, Yemen, Guyana. Also
  sectoral projections in Vietnam and Uganda
• While structural impediments seem well
  understood, priority actions to accelerate growth
  and poverty reduction generally not well-defined
• Exceptions include Rwanda on agriculture and
  constraints

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Growth and poverty outcomes
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Growth and poverty outcomes

• How do you define and measure pro-poor growth?
• Pro-poor bias growth is pro-poor if the incomes
  of the poor rise faster than the average rate of
  income growth.
• Broadly shared growth growth is pro-poor if the
  poverty measure of interest falls (poverty rate
  declines, average growth rate of incomes of the
  poor is positive, etc.)
• Which is better? ?
• 2 average growth and 3 growth of income of the
  poor?
• 6 average growth and 4 growth of income of the
  poor

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• 3. Targets and Indicators
• Setting realistic targets and indicators
  realistic in terms of expected rates of change,
  and institutional capacity to monitor
• Subject to debate discourse, informed by
  realistic projections of growth likely
  financing
• Grounded in country reality and priorities --
  include the MDGs when relevant -- customizing
  targets to country circumstances e.g. Vietnam
• Selectivity of targets and indicators
  multi-dimensional, but limited in number
• Appropriate annual indicators of performance in
  order to monitor implementation
• intermediate indicators which focus on inputs and
  outputs, that are likely linked to long-term
  outcome targets

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• Poverty and Human Rights
• Poverty and PRSP
• PRSP and Human Rights

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Are PRSPs relevant to human rights?

• Synergies
• Social education and health prominent in the
  goals and actions in PRSPs
• Political and civic clear impetus and progress
  on this front
• Governance and corruption often stressed
• Economic? Focus on growth and income earning
  opportunities but no guarantees

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Are PRSPs relevant to human rights?

• Tensions
• PRSPs emphasis on
• Country ownership
• Realism of targets
• Costing
• Sequencing
• Implementation
• Sustainability

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PRSPs and MDGs
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Key process rights to underpin PRS

• Identification of the poor
• Equality and non-discrimination
• Participation and empowerment
• Accountability and transparency

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Importance of Analysis

• Causality analysis (Unicef)
• Poverty and social impact analysis (WB)
• Multiple and contradictory incentives Impacts
  over time

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Accountability

• State as duty bearer in undertaking a PRS Process
• Multiple claim-duty relationships (Unicef)

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Capacity and Realism

• Capacity gaps
• Entitlements and aspirations
• Sequencing
• Legitimacy of representatives of the poor

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Strengthening voice in PRS process Challenges

• Breadth and depth of participation
• Information-sharing prior to and after
  consultations
• How to engage on macro-economic discussion
  policies
• Incorporating gender concerns
• Converting the results of participatory
  approaches into policy formulation and
  implementation

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Strengthening voice External agency support

• Institutionalize participatory processes
• Create an enabling legal framework for civic
  engagement
• Capacity for public expenditure tracking
• Capacity for participatory monitoring and
  evaluation
• Increased role of parliaments
• Engage sectoral agencies

PRSP and Human Rights