| Introduction: The
Key Features of the PRGF
The creation of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) in late
1999 represented the culmination of more than two years of internal and
external reviews and IMF policy discussions on the assessment and transformation
of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) (Box
1). At the time the PRGF was instituted, it was envisaged that there
would be some far-reaching changes in the way the IMF worked to support
low-income member countries. First, there would be a change in the
content of IMF-supported programs in these countries—the programs
would be more pro-poor and pro-growth. Second, there would be an increased
emphasis on country ownership of PRGF-supported programs. And third,
there would be a better definition of the IMF's role and relationship
with other agencies supporting the development efforts of low-income countries.
Although much of the structure for the anticipated changes was embedded
in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process, specific expectations
for PRGF-supported programs were laid out in the Key Features of Poverty
Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)-Supported Programs document (Box
2), which was issued in August 2000 after extensive internal and external
consultation.
The PRGF now functions as the IMF's principal instrument to support low-income
countries in implementing their poverty reduction strategies. Targets
and policies embodied in PRGF-supported programs should emerge from the
country's own poverty reduction strategy, as laid out in its PRSP or Interim
PRSP (I-PRSP). Key social and sectoral programs and structural reforms
aimed at poverty reduction are identified, assigned priorities, and given
cost estimates in the country's I-PRSP/PRSP, which are produced in a transparent
process involving broad participation from the government, nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs), civil society, and donors. The IMF is expected to
focus on its core areas of expertise while working with the authorities
in the framework of the PRGF-supported program to ensure that these targets
can be achieved within a stable macroeconomic environment.
PRGF-supported programs have some features in common (Box 2).
- PRGF-supported programs should be drawn from the country's I-PRSP/PRSP.
The overall macro framework for PRGF-supported programs must also derive
from and reflect the overall growth and poverty reduction strategy.
PRGF-supported programs should indicate how the specific measures supported
under the program are embedded within the country's overall poverty
reduction strategy. Staff reports for PRGF-
supported programs should highlight aspects of the strategy that promote
growth through private sector development.
- Conditionality should be selective and should focus on the IMF's
core areas of expertise. These will normally cover fiscal, monetary,
and external sectors and structural reforms in related areas such as
exchange rate and tax policy and issues related to fiscal transparency,
budget execution, and tax and customs administration. Conditionality
in other areas may be included to the extent that this is critical to
achieve the macroeconomic objectives of the program.
- Budgets should be pro-poor and pro-growth. Government spending should
be oriented toward poverty-reducing activities and outlays that foster
the development of human and physical capital. In order to monitor this
shift in the composition of public spending, it will be necessary to
improve public expenditure management (PEM) systems (see below). Efforts
should be made to improve the efficiency and targeting of spending,
and tax reforms should aim at improving both efficiency and equity.
- Fiscal targets should be flexible and allow increases in public expenditures
to accommodate the government's poverty reduction strategy within a
stable macroeconomic framework. Programs could also be presented in
ways that could signal financing needs. Thus, normative macro-projections
in PRSPs could be presented as possible alternatives.
- PRGF-supported programs place strong emphasis on measures to improve
public resource management and accountability by incorporating steps
to improve PEM systems and implementation of fiscal governance measures.
- Finally, PRGF-supported programs are expected to report on the social
impact of measures in the program that could have an adverse effect
on the poor. Countervailing measures are expected to be included in
the program based on such analysis. The World Bank is expected to take
the lead on the analysis.
The remainder of this paper provides an assessment of the extent to
which PRGF-supported programs have implemented the individual key features.
Section II provides an overview of study sample design and the methodology
used in the study. Section III describes whether PRGF-supported programs
are consistent with key features 1 and 2—broad ownership and participation,
and embedding the PRGF in the overall strategy for growth and poverty
reduction. Section IV tackles the issue of whether government budgets
are more pro-poor and pro-growth (key feature 3). Section V addresses
whether there is fiscal flexibility in PRGF-supported programs (key
feature 4). Section VI examines whether PRGF-supported programs have
incorporated more selective structural conditionality (key feature 5).
Section VII covers measures to improve public resource management and
accountability (key feature 6). Completing the examination of key features,
Section VIII discusses whether PRGF-supported programs incorporate poverty
and social impact analysis of major macroeconomic adjustments and structural
reforms (key feature 7). Section IX discusses the potential role of
capacity building in strengthening the design of PRGF-supported programs.
The final part, Section X, provides a summary of the experience thus
far with PRGF program design.
|
Box 1. Evolution from the
ESAF to the PRGF
The creation of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)
in late 1999 represented the culmination of more than two years
of internal and external reviews and IMF policy discussions on the
assessment and transformation of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment
Facility (ESAF). This process included
- The 1997 staff review of the ESAF ten years after the facility's
inauguration in 1987.1
- An external review of the ESAF in 1998.2
- A summary paper on the internal and external reviews—Distilling
the Lessons of the ESAF Reviews—discussed by the Executive
Board in July 1998 and leading to a first round of changes to
the ESAF architecture and staff guidance.3
- Discussions in the Executive Board and the Interim Committee
of the Board of Governors in September 1999 leading to the decision
to transform the ESAF into the PRGF and link the PRGF closely
to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).
- An Operational Issues paper for the PRGF discussed by the Executive
Board in December 1999.4
A paper providing more precise staff guidance as to the expectations
of the PRGF and PRSPs—Key Features of Poverty Reduction
and Growth Facility-Supported Programs5—was
distilled from the Operational Issues paper and its summing up,
issued to the Executive Board, and subsequently published.
1George Abed, 1998,
Fiscal Reforms in Low-Income Countries, IMF Occasional Paper
No. 160 (Washington: International Monetary Fund). Hugh Bredenkamp
and Susan Schadler, eds., 1999, Economic Adjustment and Reform
in Low-Income Countries (ESAF Review Background Papers) (Washington:
International Monetary Fund). International Monetary Fund, 1998, The
ESAF at Ten Years: Economic Adjustment and Reform in Low-Income Countries,
IMF Occasional Paper No. 156 (Washington).
2ESAF Evaluation Board, 1998, External Evaluation of
the ESAF (Washington: International Monetary Fund).
3Summing Up by the Chairman of the Executive Board—Distilling
the Lessons from the ESAF Reviews, IMF Executive Board Meeting,
July 8, 1998, available via Internet: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/buff/9862.htm.
Distilling the Lessons from the ESAF Reviews, July 1998, available
via Internet: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/distill/index.htm.
4The Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)—
Operational Issues, December 13, 1999, available via Internet:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/pdr/prsp/poverty2.htm.
5Key Features of IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility
(PRGF) Supported Programs, August 16, 2000, available via Internet:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/prgf/2000/eng/ key.htm. Concluding
Remarks by the Chairman of the IMF's Executive Board—Poverty
Reduction Strategy Papers—Operational Issues and Poverty Reduction
and Growth Facility—Operational Issues, IMF Executive Board
Meeting, December 21, 1999, available via Internet: http://www.imf.org/
external/np/pdr/prsp/1999/991221.htm. The Poverty Reduction and
Growth Facility (PRGF)—Operational Issues,
December 13, 1999. |
|
Box 2. Key Features of PRGF-Supported
Programs
As use of the PRGF has evolved, a number of distinctive features
of the new facility have emerged. Foremost among these is broad
public participation and increased national ownership. Basing
a PRGF-supported program on the country's PRSP should ensure that
civil society has been involved in the formulation of the program,
that the country authorities are the clear leaders of the process,
and that the program is properly embedded in the overall strategy
for growth and poverty reduction. Thus, IMF staff are required
to explain to the Executive Board how these programs derive from
the poverty reduction strategy and how they are complementary
to the World Bank's activities and conditionality.
An important outcome of the new approach is that more attention
is being given to the economic aspects of governance than in the
past. At the same time, more attention should be given to the
social impact of major reforms under the program. Where major
reforms are expected, analysis of the impact on the poor has to
be conducted (normally by the World Bank where governments lack
the capacity to do this work themselves) and, where necessary,
countervailing measures incorporated in the PRGF-supported program.
With improved country ownership, PRGF conditionality can and should
be more selective, focusing on measures central to the success
of the country's strategy, particularly in the macroeconomic and
financial area.
Key features are as follows:
- Broad participation and greater ownership
- Embedding of the PRGF in the overall strategy for growth and
poverty reduction
- Budgets that are more pro-poor and pro-growth
- Appropriate flexibility in fiscal targets ensured
- More selective structural conditionality
- Emphasis on measures to improve public resource management/accountability
- Social impact analysis of major macroeconomic adjustments and
structural reforms
Sources: International Monetary Fund, 2001, IMF
Lending to Poor Countries—How Does the PRGF Differ from the
ESAF?, IMF Issues Brief 01/06 (Washington). Key Features of
IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) Supported Programs,
August 16, 2000, available via Internet: http://www.imf.org/external/np/prgf/2000/eng/key.htm.
Additional details on the breadth of the key features (seven features
with a total of 22 sub-elements falling within the scope of this review)
can be found in Appendix III. |
|
