Introduction

Since then, the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) have mobilised considerable human and financial resources to implement the Initiative and to ensure its success. They began by reorganising and renaming their aid programmes so as to explicitly include the fight against poverty in their key goals. The World Bank’s financial support for low-income countries, handled by the International Development Association (IDA), now comes within the framework of Poverty Reduction Strategy Credits (PRSC) and the IMF’s within the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF). The BWIs also gave much thought to defining precise guidelines to help lowincome countries prepare the PRSPs. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2000/2001 (World Bank 2000a), entitled Attacking Poverty, was duly followed in 2001 by a reference document, or sourcebook, designed as a practical guide for the approximately sixty countries concerned (World Bank 2001a). Finally, unparalleled efforts were made to consult the developing countries’ governments and civil societies, with the organisation of a wide series of international, national and regional seminars.