Action Alert -- Sri Lanka PRSP
A group of over 125 civil society organizations called the Alliance for the Protection of Natural Resources and Human Rights in Sri Lanka has rejected the proposed Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) as written by the Sri Lankan government under close direction from the IMF and World Bank. The Alliance rejects the PRSP because there has been no adequate civil society consultation to develop the policies contained in the PRSP. The government, under duress from the Fund and Bank, has already attempted to force reforms based on the PRSP through the Sri Lankan Parliament in a hasty and undemocratic manner. The Fund and Bank are set to approve the PRSP and a subsequent IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) loan at the beginning of April 2003.
The Alliance is an umbrella civil society group that includes 31 people's organizations including peasants and fisheries workers, 72 trade unions, and 37 members of religious clergy, to date. The Alliance is calling for substantive and meaningful consultations among civil society and social movements (especially those representing groups most affected by the PRSP), the government, and the international financial institutions.
The PRSP was submitted by the Sri Lankan government to the IMF and World Bank at a donors' Development Forum in June 2002. It outlines the full set of economic development policies that the Sri Lankan government intends to follow over the next three-year period, though its repercussions will be felt for years to come. Contrary to the Fund and Bank's stated commitment to principles of country ownership and participation that are supposed to guide the PRSP process, this document was written to mirror the Fund and Bank's policy recommendations for Sri Lanka, without any consultative process with Sri Lankan civil society. The trade unions, for example, were not made aware of the PRSP until the ILO held a workshop about it in July, after it had already been written and submitted to the Fund and Bank. Members of the Alliance have attempted to find out the identities of the groups the UNDP claims to have consulted, but with no success.
Also in July, in efforts to "maintain the necessary pace of structural reform in preparation for the PRGF" (IMF Country Report No. 02/199, p 22, 2002), the Sri Lankan government introduced 36 bills in Parliament, directly corresponding to the reforms detailed in the PRSP, including land law reform, fiscal reform, and labor market reform. The government attempted to force these bills through Parliament without public review and comment such that the Fund and Bank would approve the PRSP and subsequent PRGF loan disbursement by the end of 2002. The timeline has since been pushed back and the executive boards of the Fund and Bank will now be meeting in April to approve the PRSP.
Large countrywide demonstrations against the PRSP and its resulting reforms have been carried out by the Alliance over the last few months. Their efforts have helped delay implementation of some of the intended reforms, including the labor law reforms. Labor union pressure on the government over the lack of democratic process drew a commitment from the government that the new laws would not be implemented until an adequate social safety net exists to aid those workers who would lose their jobs due to the reforms.
Now the Alliance needs your help.
Please show solidarity with the Alliance and do one or both of the following:
** Send a letter to your country's representative on the World Bank, IMF and ADB Boards, the President and Sri Lanka Country Representative for each of these IFIs, and the UNDP (see contact info below), demanding that these organizations halt approval and implementation of the PRSP until it can be redrafted based upon full civil society and social movement participation in the development of the plan.
*****
The Alliance for the Protection of National Resources and Human Rights Galkanda Purana Raja Maha Viharaya, Eppawala Tel: 025 - 49387
Officials of the World Bank
Officials of the IMF
Officials of the Asian Development Bank
Officials of the UNDP
March 2003
Your Excellency, Hon Sirs
Poverty Reduction Strategy
We are writing to support the position of the "Alliance for the Protection of National Resources and Human Rights" regarding the recently drafted Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) for Sri Lanka. We ask that approval of the PRSP be delayed until thorough consultation takes place involving all stakeholder groups.
The Alliance consists of over a hundred Sri Lankan people's organizations including major trade unions and organisations of farmers, fisheries workers, plantation workers, human rights activists, environmental activists, internally displaced persons and those threatened with displacement, women, youth, students, intellectuals and religious leaders.
These groups are deeply concerned about the likely impact of the government's poverty reduction strategy as outlined in the PRSP (Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper).
The main areas of concern are:
1. The lack of public consultation in the preparation of the PRSP and the lack of appreciation of the effects of rejection of the proposals by the people.
2. Increased levels of national indebtedness and consequent loss of sovereignty.
3. The failure of current policies (both in terms of achieving growth and in the distribution of the rewards of growth) and the continuation of these policies under the PRSP.
While according to the World Bank's PRSP website, the PRSP must be created "through a participatory process involving civil society" this has not been the case. We note that the strategies laid out in the current PRSP hardly differ from other documents laying out recommendations for Sri Lanka's economy, such as the recent IMF Article IV consultation. While these policies, which have been touted by the World Bank group in principle and in the case of Sri Lanka for years, are present in the PRSP, suggestions about democratic governance, social safety nets, fair and just employment policies and ecosystem management that citizens' groups have long been promoting are absent. One can only conclude that citizens' groups promoting these alternatives have not been consulted, or that their input has not been considered in the final draft of the PRSP.
In light of the lack of consultation in the process of drafting the PRSP, we call upon the World Bank and the IMF to halt the process of their Boards' endorsement of the PRSP until it has been redrafted to reflect input from Civil Society groups.
Yours sincerely,
*****
Contact Information
World Bank
Peter Harrold
Country Director, World Bank
DFCC Building, 1st Floor
73/5 Galle Road
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka
pharrold@worldbank.org
94 1 448 070 (phone)
94 1 440 357 (fax)
Chander Mohan Vasudev
Sri Lanka Executive Director, World Bank
1818 H St NW
Washington, DC 20433
USA
cvasudev@worldbank.org
1 202 473 1000 (phone)
1 202 477 6391 (fax)
Carole Brookins
US Executive Director, World Bank
1818 H St NW
Washington, DC 20433
USA
cbrookins@worldbank.org
1 202 473 1000 (phone)
1 202 477 6391 (fax)
James D. Wolfensohn
President, World Bank
1818 H St NW
Washington, DC 20433
USA
jwolfensohn@worldbank.org
1 202 473 1000 (phone)
1 202 477 6391 (fax)
IMF
Jeremy Carter
Senior Resident Representative, IMF
Level 14
C/O Central Bank of Sri Lanka
Colombo 1
Sri Lanka
jcarter@imf.org
94 1 346 300 (phone)
94 1 477 022 (phone)
94 1 346 259 (fax)
Yaga V. Reddy
Sri Lanka Executive Director, IMF
700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431
USA
yreddy@imf.org
1 202 623 7000 (phone)
1 202 623 4661 (fax)
Nancy P. Jacklin
US Executive Director, IMF
700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431
USA
njacklin@imf.org
1 202 623 7000 (phone)
1 202 623 4661 (fax)
Horst Kohler
Managing Director, IMF
700 19th Street NW
Washington, DC 20431
USA
hkohler@imf.org
1 202 623 7000 (phone)
1 202 623 4661 (fax)
Asian Development Bank
John R Cooney
Country Director, ADB
49/14 Galle Road
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka
jcooney@adb.org
94 1 387 055 (phone)
94 75 331 111 (phone)
94 1 386 527 (fax)
Jeung-Hyun Yoon
Sri Lanka Executive Director, ADB
P.O. Box 789
0980 Manila
Philippines
jyoon@adb.org
632 632 4444 (phone)
632 636 2444 (fax)
Paul W. Speltz
US Executive Director, ADB
P.O. Box 789
0980 Manila
Philippines
pspeltz@adb.org
632 632 4444 (phone)
632 636 2444 (fax)
Tadao Chino
Director, ADB
P.O. Box 789
0980 Manila
Philippines
tchino@adb.org
632 632 4444 (phone)
632 636 2444 (fax)
United Nations Development Program
Miguel Bermeo-Estrella
Country Director, UNDP
202-204 Bauddhaloka Mawatha,
Colombo 7
Sri Lanka
miguel.bermeo@undp.org
94 1 583 805 (phone)
94 1 581 116 (fax)
Mark Malloch Brown
Administrator, UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
USA
mark.mallochbrown@undp.org
1 212 906 5364 (fax)
*****
Further Information
The Sri Lankan PRSP: "Connecting to Growth"
http://www.erd.gov.lk/publications/regaining/Part%20II%20-%20Regaining%20Sri
%20Lanka%20-%20Connecting%20to%20Growth%20-%20Text.pdf
Sri Lankan Civil Society statement against the 36 bills
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2002/08/02/opinion/2.html
Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform website (Has information
about the Alliance and trade union activities also)
http://www.geocities.com/monlarslk/index.htm
TIE-Asia Update on Sri Lanka labor law reform (scroll to January news)
http://www.tieasia.org/NEWSsection.htm
More Info on the IMF and World Bank's PRSP Process
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/strategies/review/index.htm
