Pro-Poor Budgeting: Myth or Reality? The Social Investment for Children Initiative in Jamaica
The combination of pro-poor budgeting in Poverty Reduction Strategies has garnered for development policy and administration some critical assumptions when it comes to the implementation of programs, and the relevance of some policy decisions.
As a matter of fact, to bring about changes and efficiency in the policy arena the supply of information and the role of evidence-based practices are paramount to capture the right determinants about poverty and inequality measures. And along those lines the current trends vis-à-vis pro-poor budgeting have been unveiling distinctive paths, where matters of governance and participatory-policy making become essential to address concerns liaised with the different objectives and choices brought about by the PRSPs.
As an interesting element to broaden development alternatives, the advent of budget work highlights the necessity to streamline research in regards to the impacts of budgetary strategies and policies to tackle public expenditures, and social interventions. For such elements are closely associated with the costs behind the implementation of PRSPs.
In this debate, comparative analyses of objectives are crucial in order to carefully weigh the impacts of evaluation mechanisms when it comes to choices and the harmonization of policies between programs.
As an example, an interesting initiative in Jamaica follows up the process behind Children’s budget (here) and its overall impact on social investments and government allocations to the social sector.
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