Govt gears up efforts to prepare PRSP-2

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Doulot Akter Mala
The government has geared up its efforts to prepare the second poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP-2) for 2008-2011 period.
A 12-member committee has been formed to prepare a thematic report on macro-economic management for pro-poor growth including financial sector and trade development.
The government issued a circular last month in this connection.
The committee will submit final thematic report to the national poverty focal point of general economic division by January 31, 2008.
The report will be considered as background support for formulation of PRSP-2.
The committee members include senior officials from the planning commission, Bangladesh Bank (BB), commerce ministry, finance department, National Board of Revenue (NBR), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA).
The committee will sit on Sunday (today) to discuss the work plan for preparing the thematic report.
A consultant will be appointed for three months in this connection.
The thematic report will be prepared in line with the directives of National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction (NSAPR).
It will focus on implementation of PRSP-2, possible future challenge, specific goals, policy matrix, priority sectors and projects, strategy etc.
In the report, the committee will include work plan and ways to resolve different problems that arose while implementing the PRSP, the circular said.
The appointment of consultant and other related expenditure will be done under the general economic division's project titled 'poverty alleviation strategy paper.'
A senior NBR official will lead the committee on preparation of thematic report on resource mobilisation (domestic and foreign).
The PRSP was adopted to help sustain aid flow from the multilateral lenders, particularly the World Bank.
Sources said in the last three years the PRSP failed to yield any positive outcome, largely because of the lack of proper action.
The immediate past government approved the PRSP in October 2005 for a three-year period.
The present government has extended the PRSP by another year from June 2007 to June 2008, they said.
Sources noted that although there was a strategic roadmap to halve the poverty incidence by 2015, its implementation remained far from satisfactory.
The PRSP is an internationally designed country-specific plan for development in less-developed countries. It has also been aligned with the country Assistance Strategy (CAS) of the World Bank.