December 21, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 20: The government’s much-trumpeted Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) has adopted an approach to poverty that is devoid of accountability, proper monitoring of targets and any concept of equitable distribution of macroeconomic growth.

A research conducted by the Network for Consumer Protection has termed ‘baseless’ the rosy picture government’s progress reports on PRSP normally present. “These reports mainly highlight achievements in macroeconomic indicators like Gross Domestic Products (GDP), trade, investment, etc., but are short on distributive aspects of the growth.”

The major problem with the PRSP is its failure to comprehend the inextricable and very clear linkages between poverty and inequality. “Consequently, there is no reference to any commitment to promote equity,” a report based on the findings of the research shows.

Given the distribution of income in Pakistan based on 2001-02 estimates, every rupee increment in GDP accrues 48 paisa to the richest 20 percent of the population and seven paisa to the poorest 20 per cent. In other words, the richest segments of the population appropriate seven times more of the national income than the poorest segments. The ratio even worsens if the richest and the poorest 10 per cent of the population are compared to their respective shares being 34 and three paisa, which means that the shares of the richest 10 per cent are 11 times higher than their poorest counterparts.

The PRPS, the report says, failed to mention the need for asset distribution. There are casual references in the PRSP to the importance of distribution of income and to asset ownership. However, these concerns do not appear even as elements or steps in the strategy. Ironically, rural poverty in the PRSP has been explained as a mere function of vulnerability to droughts.

The strategy does not propose any measures to reduce land inequality. The term land reforms find no mention in the PRSP though 40 per cent of the landless (rural) households are poor.