Do PRSPs depart from the Washington Consensus in the choice of policies?
PRSPs have been introduced as an official recognition that there is no single blueprint for development. However most actors, including the Bank and the Fund, have acknowledged that while PRSPs have improved diagnostics on the various dimensions of poverty and allocation of related social spending, they have not differed much from previous adjustment programmes as far as the core economic policies are concerned. Generally speaking the macro-economic framework has been little subject to debate and sticks to what the IMF considers as ‘sound policies’. In many cases, the World Bank’s ‘Economic and Sector Work’ – the studies it carries out or commissions in its client countries – still are the source of official views which dominate the policy process at the expense of civil society inputs. The Bank’s studies range from overviews of public expenditure or poverty statistics, to detailed analyses of particular sectors or institutions.
