Civil Society Engagement in PSIA Processes:

Since the first wave of pilots commissioned by DFID and the World Bank/IMF in 2001, Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA) has become more widely used as an analytical tool in policy-making processes. Some are concerned about the lack of involvement of civil society in the design, formulation and implementation of PSIA. This study was commissioned by the Bratislava Regional Centre of the UNDP and was undertaken by a small team of consultants in a tight timeframe. The paper draws on a review of the international literature to introduce PSIAs processes and it then reviews civil society’s experience of engagement with PSIAs, and presents three case studies (Uganda, Armenia and Bolivia) as examples1. The paper then goes on to identify entry points for future civil society engagement and propose a range of tools that civil society actors might draw on to maximise the effectiveness of their future engagement. How PSIAs came about Poverty and Social Impact Analyses (PSIAs) are generally ex-ante studies examining the likely social and poverty related impacts of a particular policy change. Drawing on a broad toolkit of methods, they attempt to predict the distribution of benefit and loss that will b