ABSTRACT
Around sixty low-income countries are engaged in the PRSP Initiative, which has become the key framework for development policies in these countries. The BWIs have mobilised considerable human and financial resources to implement this new approach and to ensure its success. All the major donors rapidly decided to follow suit and link their aid policies to the PRSP Initiative. Given the enormous efforts made to introduce these programmes, their increasing importance for the countries concerned and the strong mobilisation of the international community, their success or failure will undoubtedly have not only a determinant impact for the populations of the countries concerned, but also on the future of international development aid.
