The government has also promoted privatization and various industrial development projects and has sought to develop small and medium enterprises and encourage indigenous entrepreneurship through, inter-alia, improved access to finance and training. Yet, these measures have not resolved the problem of high unemployment. The I-PRSP also notes that the poverty impact of social sector spending has been mixed, but encouraging. In education, adult literacy has not changed significantly, and there has been a substantial drop in the net enrollment ratio at the primary level. The education strategy will need to address not only the issue of parental costs, but also issues of cost effectiveness and quality of education.
Private investment plays a key role in the strategy.
In this context, the staffs suggest that Government should provide for a more amicable environment for private sector development through the execution of appropriate legal and judicial reform programs. The proposed policies are expected to restore growth to about 4 percent a year, reduce inflation to about 5 percent a year and help maintain adequate levels of international reserves. To ensure that economic growth maximizes employment generation, the document suggests that priority be given to those activities that have a direct impact on the poor. In addition, growth policies should be supplemented by accelerated public works programs and by redesigning these programs to target them more effectively at the poorer segments of the population. The staffs agree with the emphasis on employment generation and improved targeting of public works programs, but would caution the government against trying to select and target specific economic activities based on only their perceived employment generating potential.