AN IMPACT ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA’S POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPER (PRSP) PROCESS

AN IMPACT ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA’S POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPER (PRSP) PROCESS

Abstract:

This study was carried out to investigate the impact of participation as a communicative act in Nigeria’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process which was introduced by the World Bank and IMF as a new approach to tackling the challenges of poverty alleviation and economic development among their low-income clients. Acknowledged as a critical and integral part of the whole process by the World Bank and the IMF, was participation which was meant to induce ownership, ensure accountability, transparency and sustainability, and effectively contribute to the reduction of poverty. Deriving from the premise that communication is the lifeblood of participatory development…participation is communication …(Dagron 2007), this study investigated the extent to which participation induced ownership; ensured accountability, transparency, and sustainability, and contributed to the effective reduction of poverty in Nigeria. Adopting the case study approach and a triangulation of sources, the study arrived at the conclusion that participation in the PRSP in no way induced ownership, neither did it ensure accountability, transparency and accountability; therefore not able to contribute in any way to poverty reduction. The principal reason for the failure of the PRSP as evident in this study is the absence of participation. There was the absence of communication architecture upon which participation would be based; neither was there a system that participation could derive from. Rather it was the case of a team of technocrats who had arrogated the powers of participation unto themselves. Undergirded by Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action, the study advocates for the democratization of communicative spaces which would give people hitherto excluded the legal framework to be part of decision making processes affecting their lives and wellbeing; it also advocates for structural changes that would address issues of power and ultimately resource distribution and by implication poverty reduction. The democratization of communicative spaces and structural changes constitute the architecture and system upon which participation can thrive and have a meaning.

AN IMPACT ANALYSIS OF PARTICIPATION IN NIGERIA’S POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY PAPER (PRSP) PROCESS