Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Summary of Findings and Recommendations -- 1 The PRSP Initiative: Objectives and Relevance -- What Is the PRSP Initiative? -- What Is This Review Evaluating? -- An Assessment of Relevance -- 2 Implementation of Design Features -- Application of the Underlying Principles -- The Value Added of Process Requirements -- 3 Preliminary Results -- Value Added in Planning and Links to Implementation -- Capacity Enhancement -- Preliminary Outcomes -- 4 Alignment of the Bank's Assistance -- Alignment of CAS Formulation -- Alignment of the Bank's Financial Assistance -- Alignment of the Bank's Analytical Work -- 5 Findings and Recommendations -- PRS Process -- PRSP Content and Analytical Underpinnings -- Partnership and Alignment -- Looking Forward -- Annexes -- A: Summary of the BWI Policy Papers on the PRS Initiative -- B: Guidelines for Country Case Studies -- C: PRSP Status of 81 IDA-Eligible Countries as of May 2004 -- D: Survey of National Stakeholders in the 10 Case Study Countries -- E: Review of Joint Staff Assessments of PRSPs -- F: Management Response -- G: Chairman's Summary: Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE) -- Endnotes -- References -- Boxes -- 1.1 Stated Objectives of the PRS Initiative -- 1.2 Key Evaluative Material for This Review -- 1.3 Some Common External Criticisms of the PRSP Initiative -- 1.4 The PRSP Initiative Means Different Things to Different People -- 2.1 Parliaments and the PRSP -- 2.2 Participation Has Largely Not Been Sustained -- 2.3 Coordinated Donor Support for PRSP Formulation in Ethiopia -- 2.4 PRSP Helps Donors Coordinate Budget Support and Streamline Performance Monitoring -- 2.5 JSAs Play Different Roles for the Bank and the Fund -- 2.6 Key Findings of IEO Review of JSAs -- 2.7 Good Practice Treatment of Alternative Growth Strategies.

2.8 New Government in Albania Uses APR to Adjust the PRSP -- 2.9 APR Requirements Unconnected to Domestic Processes -- 3.1 The PRSP Has Raised Awareness about Exploring Synergies across Sectors -- 3.2 Good Practice: Rolling PERs Analyze Options and Problems in PEM and Detailed Blueprints for Change -- 3.3 Weak Sub-National Capacity Makes Implementing PRSPs More Difficult -- Figures -- 1.1 Poverty Reduction and Growth below Expectations in the 1990s -- 1.2 A Country-Level Results Chain -- 2.1 Was the PRS Process Country-Driven? -- 2.2 Opinions Diverge on Participation -- 2.3 PRSP Process Scores High on Partnership Aspects, but Much Lower on Current Quality of Donor Coordination -- 2.4 JSAs Are Weak in Some Areas -- 3.1 Is the PRSP Process Focused on Outcomes That Benefit the Poor? -- 3.2 Post-PRSP Expenditures Continue Pre-PRSP Trend -- 3.3 Quality of Policies and Institutions in PRSP and Non-PRSP Countries -- 3.4 Average Net ODA Flows per Country -- 4.1 World Bank Lending Has Shifted to PRSP Countries -- 4.2 PRSCs Have Less Sectoral Concentration Than Previous Adjustment Lending to PRSP Countries -- 4.3 Sectoral Allocation in Bank Lending and PRSPs -- 4.4 Core ESW Increased in PRSP Countries, and They Receive More Core Diagnostic ESW Than Non-PRSP Countries -- 4.5 PRSP Alignment of the Bank's Analytical Work Was Not Rated as Highly as Alignment of Financial Assistance or Strategy -- Tables -- 2.1 Case Study Countries -- 2.2 Top 10 Priority Sectors in PRSPs by Expenditure -- 3.1 Progress in MDGs for 12 PRSP Countries with Annual Progress Reports.