To make the preparation of the PRSP a participatory exercise the government will take the following steps:

1. Select a reputable, European research institute to facilitate and help to manage the process in collaboration with domestic partners. In particular, these facilitators (foreign and domestic) will carry out the comprehensive stakeholder analysis and identify a set of feasible mechanisms for consultation.

2. Conduct a national level workshop to build ownership and consensus among the central and line ministries, donors and representative bodies over the PRSP process.

3. Establish clear and transparent selection criteria for participants in the participatory process.

4. Define the institutional mechanisms through which different stakeholders can participate in the PRSP, including national workshops, focus groups and interviews, but also a public debate which can be carried out through the media or letter writing.

5. Initiate a public information campaign to increase knowledge of the PRSP among civil society groups and communities, thereby increasing their capacity to articulate their views in the context of the PRSP process.

6. Recruit and train a cadre of local consultants, perhaps university students, who can carry out the consultations.

7. Carry out the consultations over the course of the fall and early winter months of the year 2000.

8. Evaluate and analyze the information gathered through the consultative process in cooperation with the facilitators and present it to the Steering Committee, and then incorporate the findings into the PRSP document.

9. Conduct a consensus building and validation workshop in June 2001 to build ownership over the strategy and finalize the PRSP document.