Fighting poverty and corruption: integrating the fight against corruption into the PRS process: Analysis and recommendations for development cooperation

Corruption is a cause of poverty in developing countries, and a constraint to successful poverty reduction. Working on this premise, this paper explores whether, and if so how, the link between poverty reduction and the fight against corruption is included in the poverty reduction strategies (PRS) of the poorest countries. It is based on the desk study of 54 PRS documents, and in-depth analysis of five country case studies (Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroon, Nicaragua and Zambia). The most salient result is that the link between poverty reduction and good governance, in general, and the fight against corruption, in particular, is acknowledged almost without exception and integrated into the existing PRS. It provides an overview of the anti-corruption strategies and corruption prevention in the studied PRS; recommendations for development cooperation action; and a number of good practices and interesting cases studies.