1. OUR JOURNEY TOWARDS COUNTRY OWNERSHIP OF THE PROCESS OF PARTICIPATION IN PRSP Synopsis of a Knowledge-Sharing Workshop May 02, 2005

2. WE ARRIVED & STARTED OUR DIALOGUEWITH LOTS OF ENTHUSIASM

3. WERE CHALLENGED BY MATS TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX & DISCUSS WHAT DIFFERENCE HAVE WE MADE FOR THE POOR AS A RESULT OF THE SHIFT IN PARADIGM TOWARDS PRSP …

4. WE LISTERNED TO PRESENTATIONS FROM 10 COUNTRIES EACH OF THEM ELABORATING DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF THE PROCESS OF PARTICIPATION IN PRSP

5. WE HAD SOME INFORMAL STRATEGY DISCUSSIONS The issue of gender equity in participation was mentioned by several participants, but no real space was provided to contextualize this issue

6. MADE POIGNANT POINTS ABOUT THE ISSUES AT STAKE

7. ASKED QUESTIONS

8. MOSTLY AGREED ON ISSUES & VIEW POINTS

9. SOMETHIMES DISAGREED BY OUTLINING ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORKS FOR CSO PARTICIPATION…

10. But luckily, before it became heated, we took a break for lunch

11. When we came back, we talked about parliament and civil society cooperation for participation

12. Discussed some ideas for using media to build civil society participation

13. And some advice from the World Bank about country ownership

14. AT THE END OF THE DAY’S DELIBERATIONS: We reached Consensus on… Participation should go beyond what the “original framework of PRSP suggests – these original frameworks simply provided the space and legitimized participation Different modes of participation are emerging from different countries, the challenge is how we formulate ownership and promote sovereignty Multi-stakeholder strategies were formulated to guide this process of ownership Members of Parliament formulated broad issues of consensus about the need to re-assert the power of peoples representatives and build coalitions of the “willing” and the “able” to exercise effective participation