Second PRSP should have political ownership
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
The second round of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (SRSP) which the council of advisers approved recently should have the endorsement of the country's political leaders who would take the reign of government through elections next month, reports BSS.
Equity and Justice Working Group (EJWG), an umbrella organisation of some civil society organisations said it at a press briefing in the city Monday morning.
They said, since a political government was just at the doorstep, it should make significant contributions and give it a political ownership by improving the domestic focus and freeing it from much of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) dictations.
EJWG president Rezaul Karim Chowdhury gave the briefing, while staff researcher Aminul Haque presented the keynote paper.
They said, the second PRSP was more overloaded than the first one by external conditionalities, greater dependence on domestic borrowing and external aid and more trade liberalisation targets than focusing on how to reduce domestic poverty, increase employment and open export market.
Moreover, they said, when the Western economies were working to strengthen state intervention on the unbridled free market, the WB, IMF and such other organisations are asking the government here through the second PRSP to go for further privatisation.
They said, it had moreover, laid target for commercialising agriculture increasing dependence of small farmers on privatised irrigation, fertiliser and seed supplies to destroy them and make their livelihood increasingly difficult.
They said, the second PRSP should be revised and the elected government should have the chance to work on it.
Equity and Justice Working Group (EJWG), an umbrella organisation of some civil society organisations said it at a press briefing in the city Monday morning.
They said, since a political government was just at the doorstep, it should make significant contributions and give it a political ownership by improving the domestic focus and freeing it from much of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) dictations.
EJWG president Rezaul Karim Chowdhury gave the briefing, while staff researcher Aminul Haque presented the keynote paper.
They said, the second PRSP was more overloaded than the first one by external conditionalities, greater dependence on domestic borrowing and external aid and more trade liberalisation targets than focusing on how to reduce domestic poverty, increase employment and open export market.
Moreover, they said, when the Western economies were working to strengthen state intervention on the unbridled free market, the WB, IMF and such other organisations are asking the government here through the second PRSP to go for further privatisation.
They said, it had moreover, laid target for commercialising agriculture increasing dependence of small farmers on privatised irrigation, fertiliser and seed supplies to destroy them and make their livelihood increasingly difficult.
They said, the second PRSP should be revised and the elected government should have the chance to work on it.