ABSTRACT
Around the turn of the millennium, donors made the participation of civil society in the formulation of Poverty Reduction Strategies (prsps) a formal condition for Enhanced hipc (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) debt relief. Soon prsps became a cornerstone of a new aid approach. Many critics in the ngo (non-governmental organizations) community and beyond reacted enthusiastically to what was perceived as a major breakthrough in the thinking at the World Bank and the imf (International Monetary Fund). Today the fizz seems to have gone out of the bottle. Governments never really warmed to the idea, and donors discovered they had stumbled into a political minefield. Critics are disappointed about the shallow nature of the participation that was achieved. We argue that the flawed results are symptoms of deeper lying problems.
