Beyond The Rhetoric. Mainstreaming Environmental Issues into Poverty Reduction Strategies: The case of Ethiopia

Since 1999, the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) encourage developing countries to prepare the so called poverty reduction strategies (PRSs), which are national integrated strategies formulated through a participatory process coordinated with donors. This research has aimed to contribute to the development of effective PRS, especially the Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme (SDPRP) of Ethiopia. With reference to existing studies, the thesis justifies the need for a national strategy for sustainable development (NSSD) and identifies the principles and criteria for evaluating such strategies in relation to their integrated and participator character, country commitment, the nature of the policy processes, targeting and resourcing. It subsequently explains that NSSD & PRS have common characteristics and hence the criteria for NSSD evaluation can also be used for PRS. To evaluate Ethiopia's SDPRP 2002 process and contents in relation to the principles and criteria, interviews with 37 high level officials in various governmental and non-governmental institutions in Ethiopia were conducted. Analysis revealed that the SDPRP 2002 did not integrate environmental, social and economic objectives. Part of the reason for this was that the SDPRP 2002 was based on existing sector specific policies and strategies. Participation was not complete and was limited only to the formulation rather than to the implementation stage of the strategy process. While the SDPRP 2002 was a home-grown strategy with high level governmental involvement, it failed to analyse and address environment ? poverty linkages. It has also failed to establish environmental targets and related measures. Despite these deficiencies, the SDPRP 2002 was a valuable attempt of strategic planning for sustainable development and there is an opportunity to act on the identified deficiencies in the SDPRP 2005 which was being prepared at the time of writing this thesis. For example, this research identified that the SDPRP 2002 did not have a clear long-term vision, but that the next SDPRP 2005 will be based on the Millennium Development Goals. Furthermore, this research discovered that the SDPRP 2002 did not effect changes in the thinking, planning and operation of the energy sector in Ethiopia; mainly because it did not adequately cover this sector and did not develop effective communications and awareness raising mechanisms. Based on the analysis, recommendations on Ethiopia's SDPRP 2002 have been made that could assist policy-makers and other concerned parties in their efforts to develop an effective sustainable development and poverty reduction strategy