4.2.1 PRSP in Bangladesh
The PRS process in Bangladesh started in 2001. The country’s I-PRSP was published in March 2003, and the full version in October 2005. A Planning Commission for PRS has been established within the Ministry of Finance to formulate the PRSP. A meeting of NGOs took place in March 2002 organised by ActionAid Bangladesh and the People’s Empowerment Trust (PET). This produced a declaration urging the World Bank to change the deadline for the preparation of the full PRSP, with the outcome that the time limit was postponed from September 2002 to the end of 2003. Researchers and NGOs have criticised the fact that the I-PRSP was written by just two foreign experts, because the government wanted to speed up the process so as to receive loans and credits quicker. They also criticised the fact that consultations were only conducted with a professional elite and not with people actually living in poverty. The content of the I-PRSP does not really force the government to change any of its policies, as it omits important issues such as corruption, disaster protection, health and education.
Finally, the formulation process of the full PRSP was rather protracted, and the paper was only officially adopted in October 2005, right at the end of the legislative period. This left little time for the government – which had initiated the PRS in the first place – to start implementation. In addition, the paper has not been accepted by all the ministries: the Science and ICT Minister, for example, criticised it intensively (dramatically throwing the book on the floor at an official meeting in August 2006). The Bangladeshi PRS was also not discussed with parliament, which again emphasises that the paper is not widely accepted.
On the part of the donor community, the World Bank and IMF approved the paper in December 2006. Other donors such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and DFID also seem to support the PRS in Bangladesh. The UNDP announced a project on its website to monitor and evaluate both the PRS and the MDGs.
Although a wide participatory process was conducted for the formulation of the PRS, the quality of participation remains doubtful. The process was led by bureaucrats who organised meetings on a pro forma basis, but did not really give poor people the possibility to raise their voice. Finally, only a few persons were responsible for writing the document.
The Bangladeshi PRS is moreover one policy paper among many others, which it also partially overlaps with. All in all, the PRS does not have a wide ownership and is not the only key policy document in the country. Nevertheless, its importance has increased, as it is stated that NGOs can only receive funds from outside Bangladesh for activities which are in line with the PRS, following the government’s statement in 2005 that organisations will not be allowed to receive international funds for measures that are not linked to the PRSP. (In Bangladesh all NGOs receiving funds from abroad have to be registered with a governmental division (the NGO Affairs Bureau), and every project needs this division’s final approval.)
