This paper presents a Joint Staff Advisory Note on Kenya's Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. Kenya is implementing the three-tiered East Africa Community (EAC) common external tariff and needs to develop a trade strategy, in agreement with other EAC members, that further lowers trade barriers...

The Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (SCRP) for Benin explains growth strategy for poverty reduction. The SCRP emphasizes the importance of addressing governance, transparency, and corruption. Capacity for budget management will also have to be improved at the level of sectoral...

The Joint Staff Advisory Note on the Republic of Madagascar's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is analyzed. The government of Madagascar has prepared its second growth and poverty reduction strategy called the Madagascar Action Plan (MAP), a bold development plan for 2007-12. The MAP...

This paper discusses key findings of the annual progress report on implementing the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)-Nigeria's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. The progress report highlights key accomplishments and shortcomings as well as outstanding issues. Key...

The Joint Staff Advisory Note discusses the progress in implementing the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Zambia. The government has officially launched its second PRSP, known as the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) for 2006-10. The FNDP builds on the achievements of the first...

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to disadvantaged people and the financially excluded, often with a social mission of poverty alleviation and women empowerment. There are many different forms of microfinance institutions (MFIs): for-profit, not-for-profit and state-owned, all...

Throughout the developing world, there is a desperate quest for a way out of the financial predicament confronting the rural poor. In most countries of the developing regions, especially South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the rural population forms the larger proportion of the entire population...