AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

82 SABRINA BRANDT
improved productive capacity will reduce the imports of construction material
and boost export growth to 15% per year on average. This will ease
the pressure on the current account. (GoR 2007: 129)
Finally, Gore’s notion on strategic integration into regional markets
can also be found in the EDPRSP. Progress on regional integration is
mentioned (for example, Rwanda has joined the East African Community)
and it aims to turn its weakness, being landlocked, into a strength -
a regional hub.
Besides the PRSPs, which are medium-term oriented, the GoR has
also published a long term development strategy, Rwanda Vision 2020 in
2000. The content of this document is even closer related to the Latent
South Consensus – be it already for the fact that its orientation is longterm.
The final sentence of this document gives us a last confirmation of
some similarities between the Southern Consensus and Rwanda’s development
strategy:
[T]here is a need to devise and implement policies as well as mobilize resources
to bring about the necessary transformation to achieve the Vision.
This is realistic based on the fact that countries with similar unfavourable
conditions have succeeded. The development experience of the East Asian
“Tigers” proves that this dream could be a reality. (GoR 2000: 25)
6 CONCLUSION
In the 1990s, critiques on the achievements of neoliberal development
policies led to a debate on aid effectiveness and poverty reduction. This
has introduced us to the Poverty Reduction Strategy of the IFIs and the
five principles of aid effectiveness of the Paris Declaration. Though announced
as a “paradigm shift”, these mechanisms have been criticised
for being mere morphed versions of the neoliberal policies of the past.
The principle of ownership more specifically has been challenged because
it is undermined by the conditionalities and IFIs interference in the
process of drawing the PRSP. Therefore the PRSP offers no room for
alternative policies and resemble the neoliberal policy package favoured
by the Washington Consensus.
This essay contributes to this debate by examining the content of the
EDPRSP 2008-2012 of Rwanda. It finds that indeed some neoliberal
oriented policies are found in the document, and the IFIs did interfere in