This paper assesses how the needs of children are incorporated in to Ethiopia's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper – the Ethiopian Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Programme 2002-2005 (SDPRP). It proposes policy recommendations for the second PRSP drawn from a comparative content analysis of other countries'PRSPs.

The paper begins by identifying the key ingredients of a child-centred PRSP: consideration of childhood poverty in the document's poverty analysis; spaces for consultation with children; child-specific policies and programmes as well as child-sensitive macro-development policies; institutionalised mechanisms to coordinate these policy approaches and the inclusion of child-related progress indicators. The second section considers the extent to which the Ethiopian PRSP is pro-poor and pro-child and contrasts this to more child-sensitive approaches in other PRSPs. The paper then analyses the SDPRP's policies, programmes and indicators using a rights-based framework. It assesses the extent to which both direct and indirect policies are in accordance with the key principles set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child –child survival, development, protection, equal treatment and participation. The paper concludes by drawing on the best practices of PRSPs in other countries and outlining how a child-focused PRSP could more effectively address the multi-dimensionality of childhood poverty in Ethiopia.

Keywords: Ethiopia, policy implementation, outcomes, monitoring