Assessing the impact of PRSPs on Child Poverty: The Case of Bolivia

Never<strong>the</strong>less, <strong>the</strong> Bolivian PRSP did involve a reallocation <strong>of</strong> funding under <strong>the</strong> HIPC II
initiative. The additional funds available to municipalities to invest in social spending (health,
education and productive and social infrastructure) could have had a significant <strong>impact</strong> on <strong>the</strong>
performance <strong>of</strong> health and education indicators.
Before proceeding, it is important to examine whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> HIPC II funding really represented
additional resources to <strong>the</strong>se sectors, or whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y simply replaced o<strong>the</strong>r sources <strong>of</strong> funding.
As can be seen from <strong>the</strong> graph below, <strong>the</strong> overall allocation <strong>of</strong> resources to health and education
increased around 2001, indicating that <strong>the</strong> HIPC II did in fact come in addition to existing
resources available for <strong>the</strong>se sectors.
Graph 3: Health and Education spending as a percentage <strong>of</strong> GDP
Percentage
Health & Education spending as a percentage <strong>of</strong>
GDP
9.00
8.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
(1)
Years
2002
(p)
24
2003
Health
Education
Note: (1): Datos preliminares con ejecución a diciembre de 2001; (p) preliminary; 2003 data estimated
Source: UDAPE
Health indicators
The following provides a descriptive analysis <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> main performance and intermediate
indicators as identified in <strong>the</strong> Bolivian PRSP.
One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> main performance indicators included in <strong>the</strong> PRSP is child mortality rate. However,
authors such as Ravi Kanbur (2003) argue that this indicator does not keep track <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> poverty
reality in a country. The death <strong>of</strong> a poor person reduces poverty according to <strong>the</strong> commonly used
measures <strong>of</strong> poverty. Never<strong>the</strong>less, this “surely violates our basic intuitions <strong>of</strong> how poverty
measures should behave. It cannot be right in concept that differentially higher mortality among
<strong>the</strong> poor serves to reduce poverty” (Kanbur, 2003). Never<strong>the</strong>less, as it is one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> few health
indicators related to children included in <strong>the</strong> Bolivian PRSP, this paper will continue including
its analysis as part <strong>of</strong> this study.
The mortality rates for children under one year old were reduced by 44 % during <strong>the</strong> 1989 to
2003 period. However, mortality rates seem to have been already following a downward trend
since 1989, well before <strong>the</strong> PRSP was implemented. Even if <strong>the</strong>re is a slightly higher rate <strong>of</strong>
decrease after 1998, again, it is difficult to attribute it solely to <strong>the</strong> implementation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> PRSP.