Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategies in Africa: a Democratic Innovation?

Main Question: To what extent has the preparation Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers resulted in more effective political participation in Africa’s aid dependent countries? African countries receiving international aid and loans must prepare a comprehensive Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in a participatory process. This form of ‘process conditionality’ imposed by aid donors (led by the international financial institutions) constitutes a highly interesting potential democratic innovation. The current ‘Post Washington Consensus’ framework reflects an uneasy marriage between the dominant neo-liberal policy paradigm concerning macro-economic stability and a populist tendency aimed at poverty alleviation (as also evident in the Millennium Development goals). At the same time, the policy process around the provision of aid represents an illustration of the intricate interaction between domestic (state and non-state) actors and transnational political actors and the rising hegemony of a transnational class of development ‘experts’, with all kinds of implications for the development of democracy within African countries. Participation in the formulation of poverty policies is thought to enhance the ownership and effectivity of such policies in the developing world and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals set in 2000 and updated with the ‘Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. The policy paradigm of macro-economic growth and stability coupled with poverty alleviation is underpinned by the notion of ‘partnership’: donors and governments receiving aid conclude a ‘compact’. However, both ‘participation’ and ‘partnership’ are problematic concepts in the world of international development assistance: the precise meaning, means and goals of participation is ambiguous and the notion of partnership creates friction in the inherently asymmetrical donor-aid recipient relationship. Going back to classic conceptualizations of participation and distinctions between forms of participation, this paper will address questions about the significance and effects of this political innovation. The questions to address are: how precisely are participatory processes in these poverty reduction strategies shaped and which groups/organizations participate (with particular emphasis on the relation between internal and external (donor) actors)? Which new non-state actors are brought into the process? How do the participatory processes relate to existing formal political institutions, such as parliaments and political parties? And finally, did the participatory processes result in real influence on the content of poverty reduction policies on the side of aid recipients – be it African governments or African non-state actors? The paper will be make a qualitative analysis of political participation in poverty reduction strategies. Besides background on the populist/neo-liberal poverty alleviation paradigm, it will present a conceptual framework on participation, a scheme mapping the kinds of actors involved in the policy process and an analysis of the political context in which these participatory innovations occur. The empirical material will be provided by a range of poverty reduction strategy papers available via the World Bank/IMF, and reports on the participatory process. Besides the analysis of policy documents qualitative data will be sought from semi-structured interviews with individuals who have taken part in the policy process.