Understanding Participatory PRS Monitoring Systems

Purpose of the Guidance

• Background PRS monitoring, the main weakness of many PRS.

Although national PRS have been in implementation for many years now, PRS monitoring is working optimally in just a handful of countries. Individual monitoring activities are hardly coordinated and are largely tailored to suit the specific reporting needs of the donors. This means that when it comes to formulating better poverty reduction policies and strategies, evidence is missing.
Today, monitoring is a high priority for PRS architects. Experts speak of a paradigm shift. Isolated monitoring activities should be replaced by a unified monitoring system supported by national players. Yet such a transition cannot materialise overnight. It must start with existing activities and be gradually built up and established.

• Target groups Civil society and private players that are concerned with PRS monitoring systems and/or interested to answer their specific questions.

Hardly anyone disputes that the knowledge held by civil society stakeholders can complement and expand monitoring information. It would be a good thing for them to participate in creating monitoring outcomes. Yet civil society organisations (CSOs) should also demand monitoring information and take part in the policy dialogue. But the preconditions are yet to be created if these two things are to happen.

• Aim and purpose Promote demand on the part of CSOs for PRS monitoring information, as well as CSOs’ interest to invest in PRS monitoring.

Non-governmental organisations do not automatically respond to the challenge to participate in the structuring of monitoring systems and in policy dialogue. The incentives are
often lacking. Empirical interviews showed that some CSOs consider their integration as a risk. Participating in monitoring and policy dialogue thus requires not merely informed and competent players, but also interested ones.
These guidelines are directly targeted civil society and private groups of players, as well as members of parliament. They constitute a source of information for all players who merely wish to inform themselves about and come to grips with the subject. The guidelines can also serve as a simple analytical tool for addressing specific questions from CSOs. One such question could be whether they can and ought to get involved in this field. Another would concern the potential spin-off from PRS monitoring for their work. Still another would pertain to the significance of PRS monitoring and their area of activity.

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