Civil Society Participation in Poverty Reduction Processes: Who is getting a seat at the pro-poor table?

The paper starts from the observation that the PRSP logic uses input output logic, meaning that it supposes that the input of ‘civil society participation’ into the policy cycle will inevitably lead to the output of poverty reduction. We argue that ‘civil society participation’ is a very vague concept and can constitute very different things depending on who is actually participating, who they represent, what influence they can yield... Consequently the type of input will also determine the extent to which the expected output will in fact be delivered and thus how civil society participation will ultimately contribute to poverty reduction. We test empirically what factors explain CSO participation in PRSP participatory processes based on data gathered from Honduran civil society organizations.

The Participation Conditionality under Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: The Joint Staff Assessment -experience

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) framework introduced by the World Bank and the IMF at the turn of the century goes well beyond the mainly macroeconomic conditionalities of the structural adjustment era by requesting that civil society participates in the preparation and the implementation of the strategy. Although constituting a significant shift in the international financial institutions’ discourse, the difference in the way in which the traditional and the “participation” conditions are scrutinized for compliance, considerably reduces the compulsory nature of the latter conditionality. Whereas clear standards and criteria are developed to evaluate compliance with the economic conditionalities, such standards seem to be lacking in the case of participation. This paper reviews the evaluation of the civil society participation in PRSP documents by the Joint Staff of the World Bank and the IMF. This desk-based study of 35 Joint Staff Assessments (JSAs) finds these JSAs to lack both clarity and candour.

Not quite what’s on paper? Comparison between theoretical and actual information-sharing networks in the Ugandan rural water service sector

Under Uganda’s decentralised system, rural water service delivery remains to some extent problematic. Several studies attribute the possible causes of deficiencies in the water sector to governance issues. This article applies social network analysis to map upward and downward water-related information flows between the actors of local government from village to district level. Comparing the actual information-sharing network with what’s on paper reveals a less reciprocal and more centralised network than that theoretically envisaged. Some actors, such as the district water officer, are more central than expected in terms of sending and receiving information, while others seem to underperform. Our findings show, however, that it is not the political–administrative information exchange which is the biggest obstacle, but rather information flows between higher (district and sub-county) and lower (parish and village) levels of the local governance structure. Adding water users to the analysis reveals the village chairperson as the most crucial broker of information upward to duty bearers at district level. The limited role of water user committees also becomes apparent. The authors conclude that information communication technology holds potential to overcome some of the bottlenecks (eg distance) hindering the flow of water-related information between actors at different levels

Civil Society Participation in the Honduran Poverty Reduction Strategy: Who takes a seat at the pro-poor table?

TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS I LIST OF FIGURES VII LIST OF TABLES XI LIST OF ACRONYMS: XV DANKWOORD 1 INTRODUCTION: WHO TAKES A SEAT AT THE PRO-POOR TABLE? 3 CHAPTER I INTRODUCING CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPER PROCESSES 9 I. INTRODUCING … THE POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPER 10 1. Evolution of Development Aid 10 1.1 The project-phase (1960-1980) 10 1.2 Structural Adjustment Programmes (1980-2000) 11 1.3 The new aid approach (2000-…) 12 2. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers 13 2.1 The Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) 13 2.2 The principles of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 15 2.3 PRSP logic on civil society participation: vaguely defined yet highly ambitious 16 II. INTRODUCING…CIVIL SOCIETY 20 1. What is civil society? 20 1.1. The revival of civil society 20 1.2 Defining civil society 20 1.3 Different dimensions of civil society 22 1.4 Travelling concepts: Western civil society goes ‘Latin style’? 24 2. Honduran civil society’s historical evolution 25 2.1 Sowing the seeds (1830-1932) 25 2.2 “Old “ civil society’s peak and decline (1932-1982) 26 2.3 Deepening democracy (1982-1998) 29 2.4 Post- Mitch era (1998- …) 30 3. Mapping contemporary civil society 33 3.1 Organisational diversity 33 3.2 First versus higher level organisations 33 3.3 Thematic cross-section of civil society 36 4. Honduran civil society’s self-evaluated strengths and weaknesses 41 4.1 Structure 41 4.2 Environment 42 4.3 Values 45 4.4 Impact 46 III. INTRODUCING…HONDURAN CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION IN PRSP PROCESSES 50 1. The course of the PRSP process in Honduras 50 1.1 The main players 50 1.2 Historical account of the process 53 2. Accomplishments and shortcomings of the PRSP participation process 59 2.1. Accomplishments 59 2.2. Shortcomings 61 IV. TOWARDS A RESEARCH QUESTION 63 V. CONCLUSION 65 CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH DESIGN 67 I. RESEARCH QUESTION 69 1 Relevance of the research question 69 1.1. Important in the ‘real world’ 69 1.2. Contribution to academic research 73 2. Research design 75 II. THE USE OF THEORY 77 1. Justifying using the Civic Voluntarism model 77 2. The Civic Voluntarism Model 78 2.1 The model 78 2.2 The independent variables 80 2.3 The dependent variable 81 3. Organisation level theoretical models 86 3.1 Not using organisation level models … 86 3.2 Using organisation level models … 87 III. DATA 89 1. Case selection 89 1.1 Why Honduras? 89 2. Population of CSOs in Honduras 95 2.1 The population: civil society organisations 95 2.2 Unit of observation: civil society organisations 96 3. Sampling framework 97 3.1 Selection of the regions 98 3.2 Constructing the sampling framework 101 3.3 Representativeness of the sample 104 4. Questionnaire 105 5. Data collection and processing 106 IV. ANALYSIS 109 1. Data problems 109 1.1 Missing data 109 1.2 Response rate 110 2. Methods of analysis 111 V. ASSESSING VALIDITY 112 1. Statistical conclusion validity 112 2. Internal validity 113 3. Construct validity 115 4. External validity 117 VI. CONCLUSION 119 CHAPTER 3 RESOURCES AND PARTICIPATION: “BECAUSE THEY CAN” 121 I. ACADEMIC RESEARCH 122 1. Resources and participation: the individual level 122 1.1 Civic Voluntarism Model: resources 123 1.2 Empirical research: the resource model tested… 128 2. Resources and participation: the organisational level 133 2.1 Resource Mobilisation Theory 134 2.2 Interest Group Research 144 2.3 Third sector / Non-profit/ civil society research 152 3. Academic research on resources and participation: summary 156 II. EMPIRICAL RESULTS 158 1. Resources and participation 158 1.1 Financial and material resources 158 1.2 Time 167 1.3 Human resources 170 2. Organisational characteristics and participation 173 2.1 Organisational age 174 2.2 Type of organisation 180 2.3 Issues 182 III. CRITICISMS ON PRSP: A VOICE FOR THE POOR? 188 1. PRSP logic 188 1.1 Who should participate? 189 1.2 Civil society participation: a voice for the poor? 192 2. Who is participating: the criticisms regarding biases in participation 194 3. Exploring the data 195 3.1 Membership organisations and organisations with a target population 197 3.2 Finding measures of ‘pro-poor’ orientation irrespective of the type of organisation 200 IV. CONCLUSION 205 CHAPTER 4 POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATION: “BECAUSE THEY WANT TO” 207 I. ACADEMIC RESEARCH 208 1. Political engagement and participation: the individual level 209 1.1 Presenting political engagement variables 209 1.2 Selecting political efficacy, political party and ideological preferences 213 1.3 Empirical research on political efficacy, ideological and partisan preferences 214 2. Political engagement and participation: the organisational level 221 3. Academic research on political engagement and participation: summary 223 II. EMPIRICAL RESULTS 227 1. Constructing the political strategies variables 227 1.1 Broad categories of political strategies 227 2. Political efficacy 237 2.1 Operationalising political efficacy 237 2.2 Political efficacy 239 2.3 Political efficacy and participation 242 3. Ideological profile 246 4. Partisan preferences 249 5. Preferences for political strategies 251 III. CRITICISMS ON PRSP: CIVIL SOCIETY INFLUENCE ? 254 1. Criticisms 254 1.1 Limited influence on policy-making 254 1.2 Danger of participation fatigue 255 1.3 Selective benefits 255 2. Results 256 2.1 Limited impact on policy making 256 2.2 Participation fatigue? 262 2.3 A slice of the cake? 264 IV. CONCLUSION 266 CHAPTER 5 NETWORKS AND PARTICIPATION: “BECAUSE THEY WERE ASKED” 269 I. ACADEMIC RESEARCH 270 1. Recruitment networks 271 2. Institutional embeddedness 274 3. Network centrality 276 4. Academic research on networks and participation: summary 280 II. EMPIRICAL RESULTS 283 1. Description of the networks 283 1.1 Basic characteristics of the network 283 1.2 Description of the CSO-CSO network 288 1.3 Description of the CSO-State actor network 293 1.4 Description of the CSO- international donor network 296 2. CSO’s network location and participation: Who participates? 298 2.1 Recruitment and political participation 298 2.2 Institutional embeddedness and political participation 307 2.3 Network centrality and political participation 312 III. CRITICISMS ON PRSP: REACHING BEYOND THE CAPITAL CITY? 323 1. PRSP logic 323 1.1 Inducing broad based ownership 323 1.2 Enhancing the pro-poor effectiveness of the strategy 324 1.3 Increasing accountability 324 2. THE DIFFERENT REGIONS 325 3 BROKERAGE 327 3.1 Reaching out or closing ranks? 328 IV. CONCLUSION 341 CHAPTER 6 MERGING THE THREE DIMENSIONS 343 I. MERGING THE THREE DIMENSIONS: PRESENTING THE FULL MODEL 344 1. What we have learned so far 344 2. The full model 345 II. TESTING THE FULL MODEL 347 1. Logistic regression 347 2. Coding the variables 348 3. Multicollinearity 349 4. Test and results 351 4.1 Individual variables 352 4.2 Tests of goodness of fit 355 CONCLUSION: WHO TAKES A SEAT AT THE PRO-POOR TABLE … UNEXPECTED GUESTS? 357 BIBLIOGRAPHY 361 ANNEXES: 385nrpages: 403status: publishe