Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

CPA programmes link Parliamentarians with Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) through the World Bank Institute.  

Six CPA parliamentary workshops on public spending and poverty reduction were held in 2004 and 2005 in West Africa with funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID) and in partnership with the World Bank Institute.  National workshops in Cameroon, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria were followed by a regional workshop to strengthen the capacity of participating Parliaments to deal with poverty issues.

PRSP is now commonly part of CPA post-election seminars, so newly elected Members learn direct from experienced Parliamentarians and World Bank Institute officials what their countries are doing to reduce poverty and how they can participate in this process.

At the CPA’s annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Conferences, Commonwealth Members debate poverty-related issues such as achieving the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, how Parliament and civil society can work together for poverty reduction and the link between poverty and human security. 

In 2006, the CPA joined with Wilton Park and the World Bank Institute to hold a conference on the ways Parliaments, donors, private corporations and non-governmental organizations can best co-operate against poverty.