AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

7
Does the Aid Consensus Shift
from Washington to the South?
A Case Study of PRSP Ownership
in Rwanda
SABRINA BRANDT
1 INTRODUCTION
The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (OECD 2005) introduced
the principle of ownership, which implies that countries receiving official
development aid are to exercise leadership and coordination on their development
policies and projects. This principle seemed to announce the
aftermath of the “one-size fits all” approaches to development by offering
the possibility for context-based approaches.
However, country ownership of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
(PRSPs) has been questioned because critics noticed them reflecting
the neoliberal policies of the past. They argue the PRSPs lack alternative
policies and are influenced or even directed by the international financial
institutions (IFIs). Rather than context-based development policies, the
contents of PRSPs seemed surprisingly similar across countries.
This essay will examine the principle of ownership in the PRSP process
in Rwanda. By analysing the content of the Economic Development
and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EDPRSP) for the period 2008-
2012. The present essay considers whether the EDPRSP only represents
morphed neoliberal policies that suit the Washington Consensus, or
whether there is also some room for policies that could fit the alternative
Latent South Consensus as proposed by Charles Gore (2000).
The next section will provide the necessary background information;
depicting the changes in the architecture of aid from the neoliberal
Washington Consensus to the new Paris Declaration. The third section
72