Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:25:28.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Things Fall Apart Again: Structural Adjustment Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

J. Barry Riddell
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

International economics and global politics are unfamiliar territory for many. However, the operations of institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F.) have profound impacts upon the countries with which they treat, and these extend beyond financial issues and geo-politics. This article indicates how the I.M.F. has imposed ‘conditionalities’ in sub-Saharan Africa as integral elements of Structural Adjustment Programmes (S.A.P.s) that affect not only the lives of all the inhabitants, but also the nature and landscapes of the nations concerned — their very geographical composition.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 1992 , pp. 53 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Singer, H. W. and Sharma, Surya (eds.), Economic Development and World Debt (London, 1989), Pp. xix–xx.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 George, Susan, A Fate Worse that Debt: a radical new analysis of the Third World debt crisis (London, 1988).Google Scholar The crisis has become pervasive enough to be highlighted and treated as ‘The Debt Police’, in Time International (New York), 31 07 1989, pp. 32–8Google Scholar. A recent report in West Africa (London), 13–19 January 1992, p. 72, indicates that Nigeria's $34,000 million external debt is acting as a stranglehold on development.Google Scholar

3 According to the World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa. From Crisis to Sustainable Growth: a long-term perspective study (Washington, D.C., 1989), p. 221, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced increasingly unfavourable rates of average annual G.N.P. per capita growth compared to all low-income countries (figures in brackets) during the following periods: 1965–73, 2·9 (3·3)%; 1973–80, 0·1 (2·6)%; 1980–7, –2·8 (4·0)%.Google Scholar

4 The 1980s witnessed a complicated convergence between the I.M.F. and the World Bank in the evolution of S.A.P.s that address the twin issues of debt and economic growth. Previously, the Fund was mainly concerned with currencies and international trade, whereas the interestas of the World Bank centred upon poverty and development. See the special issue of Geoforum (Elmsford, NY, and Oxford), 19, 1, 1988, pp. 1–131Google Scholar, on ‘The Debt Crisis’ edited by Stuart Corbridge, and also Campbell, Bonnie, ‘Indebtedness in Africa: consequence, cause or symptom of the crisis?’, in Onimode, Bade (ed.), The IMF, the World Bank and the African Debt, Vol. 2, The Social and Political Impact (London and New Jersey, 1989), pp. 17–30.Google Scholar

5 Cf. various articles in the quarterly publication of the I.M.F. and the World Bank, Finance and Development (Washington, D.C.). When their combined resources, journals, access to the media, and economic expertise are considered, it would be fair to suggest that the perceptions, opinions, and programmes of these two international organisations overwhelm those of the African continent.Google Scholar

6 Hoogvelt, Ankie, ‘The Crime of Conditionality: open letter to the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund(IMF)’, in Review of African Political Economy (Sheffield), 38, 1987, p. 80.Google Scholar

7 At the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of African Studies held in 1990 at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, the World Bank representative was roundly booed by the banquet audience when attempting to justify S.A.P.s that are known to have caused widespread misery and destruction.

8 Scott, J. C., Weapons of the Weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance (New Haven and London, 1985).Google Scholar

9 See, inter alia, Hirschman, A.O., Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizaions, and states (Cambridge, MA, 1970);Google ScholarBates, Robert H., Markets and States in Tropical Africa: the political basis of agricultural policies Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1981;Google ScholarSandbrook, Richard with Barker, Judith, The Politics of Africa' Economic Stagnation (Cambridge, 1985);CrossRefGoogle ScholarHelleiner, Gerald K., Africa and the International Monetary Fund (Washington, D.C., 1986);Google ScholarAzarya, Victor, ‘Reordering State-Society Relations: incorporation and disengagement’, in Rothchild, Donald and Chazan, Naomi, (eds.), The Precarious Balance: state and society in Africa (Boulder and London, 1988), pp. 3–21;Google ScholarOnimode, Bade, A Political Economy of the African Crisis (London and New Jersey, 1988);Google ScholarBates, Robert H., ‘The Reality of Structural Adjustment: a sceptial appraisal’, in Commander, Simon (ed.), Structural Adjustment and Agriculture: theoy and practice in Africa and Latin America (London and Portsmouth, NH, 1989), pp. 221–7;Google ScholarCampbell, Bonnie K. (ed.), Political Dimensions to the International Debt Crisis (London, 1989);CrossRefGoogle ScholarGreen, Reginald Herbold, ‘Articulating Stabilisation Programmes and Structural Adjustment: sub-Saharan Africa’ in Commander, (ed.), op. cit. pp. 35–54;Google ScholarKillick, Tony, A Reaction Too Far: economic theory and the role of the state in developing countries (London, 1989);Google ScholarParfitt, Trevor W. and Riley, Stephen P., The African Debt Crisis (London and New York, 1989);Google ScholarBiersteker, Thomas J., ‘Reducing the Role of the State in the Economy: a conceptual exploration of IMF and World Bank prescriptions’, in International Studies Quarterly (Guildford, Surrey), 34, 1990, pp. 477–92;Google ScholarCallaghy, Thomas M., ‘Lost Between State and Market: the politics of economic adjustment in Ghana, Zambia, and Nigeria’, in Nelson, J. M. (ed.), Economic Crisis and Policy Change (Princeton, 1990), pp. 259–319;Google ScholarNelson, J. M., ‘Introduction’, in Nelson (ed.), op. cit. pp. 3–32;Google Scholar and Sandbrook, Richard, ‘Taming the African Leviathan’, in World Policy Journal (New York), Fall 1990, pp. 673–701.Google Scholar

10 For example, given the recent (and continuing?) collapse of the state in Liberia, Somalia, or Ethiopia, who can be certain that they will survive indefinitely? Others are also experiencing the most severe financial constraints, including Sierra Leone, Mali, and Zambia.

11 MacGaffey, Janet, Entrepreneurs and Parasites: the struggle for indigenous capitalism in Zaïre (Cambridge, 1987).Google Scholar

12 Bohannan, Paul and Dalton, George (eds.), Markets in Africa (Evanston, 1962).Google Scholar

13 Hyden, Goran, Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: underdevelopment and an uncaptured peasantry (London, Berkeley, and Los Angeles, 1980).Google Scholar

14 Drakakis-Smith, David, The Third World City (London and New York, 1987), p. 66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 For example, Maliyamkono, T. L. and Bagachwa, M. S. D., The Second Economy in Tanzania (London and Dar es Salaam, 1990), pp. 134–5, report that only 20–30 per cent of food staples pass through official channels in that country.Google Scholar

16 Hance, William A., Kotshar, V., and Peterec, R. J., ‘Source Areas of Export Production in Tropical Africa’, in Geographical Review (New York), 51, 1961, pp. 487–99.Google Scholar

17 This supposed paradox is resolved when the rôle of the state is decomposed into its six separate components. See Biersteker, loc. cit.

18 Parfitt, and Riley, , op. cit.Google Scholar

19 Blaikie, Piers, The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries (London and New York, 1985).Google Scholar

20 Adams, W. M., ‘The Environmental Effects of Dam Construction in Tropical Africa: impacts and planning procedures’, in Geoforum, 17, 1986, pp. 403–10,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘The Downstream Impact of Dam Construction: a case study from Nigeria’, in Transactions, Institute of British Geographers (London), 10, 1985, pp. 292–302.Google Scholar

21 The analogy to the colonial half-truth of ‘vent for surplus’ is apt. For a nuanced analysis of the complementarity versus competition debate regarding cash crop production, see Bassett, T. J., ‘Development Theory and Reality: the World Bank in northern Ivory Coast’, in Review of African Political Economy, 41, 1988, pp. 45–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 Africa's first Environmental Action Plan (E.A.P), in Madagascar, was announced in 1990.

23 Burand, Deborah and Barton, Carol, ‘Debt-for-Nature Swaps’, in [U.N.] Development Forum (Washington, D.C.), 17, 4, 07–08 1989, pp. 12–13,Google Scholar and Cartwright, John, ‘Conserving Nature, Decreasing Debt’, in Third World Quarterly (London), 11, 2, 04 1989, pp. 114–27.Google Scholar

24 Cf. Kimble, David, The Consolidation and Effectiveness of the University (Zomba, 1984), p. 15: ‘we mislead ourselves by using a paranymn – namely, a word which signifies the opposite of that suggested by its user. Hence the need to put “so-called” before “developing” [countries]’.Google Scholar

25 The World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (Oxford and New York, 1987).Google Scholar

26 See Ellis, Gene, ‘In Search of a Development Paradigm: two tales of a city’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 26, 4, 12 1988, pp. 677–83, for evidence of the Ethiopian Government's inability, 13 years after its nationalisation of trees, to sustain a viable fuelwood-supply forest for Addis Ababa.Google Scholar See also, Munslow, Barry et al., The Fuelwood Trap: a study of the SADCC region (London, 1988).Google Scholar

27 See the debate between Auty, R. M., ‘Worlds within the Third World’, in Area (London), 11, 1979, pp. 232–5,Google Scholar and Jonathan Crush and J. Barry Riddell, ‘Third World Misunderstanding?’, in ibid. 12, 1980, pp. 204–6.

28 The key World Bank studies in the 1980s were Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: an agenda for action (1981), Sub-Saharan Africa: progress report on development prospects and programs (1983), Toward Sustained Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: a joint program of action (1984), Financing Adjustment with Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (1986), and Sub-Saharan Africa: from crisis to sustainable growth (1989).Google Scholar

29 See Demery, Lionel and Addison, Tony, ‘Food Insecurity and Adjustment Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of the evidence’, in Development Policy Review (London), 5, 1987, pp. 177–96;Google ScholarKent, Randolph C., ‘Food, Famine and Future Prospects for Africa’, in Third World Quarterly, 10, 1, 01 1988, pp. 373–81;Google ScholarWilliams, Gavin, ‘The World Bank in Rural Africa, Revisited: a review of the World Bank's Nigeria agricultural sector review, 1987’, in Review of African Political Economy, 43, 1988, pp. 42–67;CrossRefGoogle ScholarGreen, Reginald Herbold, ‘The Broken Pot: the social fabric, economic disaster and adjustment in Africa’, in Onimode (ed.), op. cit. Vol. 2, pp. 31–55;Google Scholar and Loxley, John, ‘Structural Adjustment in Africa: reflections on Ghana and Zambia’, in Review of African Political Economy, 47, 1990, pp. 8–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Riddell, J. Barry, ‘The African Malaise’, in Canadian Journal of Development Studies (Ottawa), 8, 1987, pp. 387–92,Google Scholar and Watts, Michael, ‘The Agrarian Crisis in Africa: debating the crisis’, in Progress in Human Geography (London), 13, 1989, pp. 1–41.Google Scholar

31 Riddell, J. Barry, ‘Urban Bias in Underdevelopment: appropriation from the countryside in post-colonial Sierra Leone’, in Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (Amsterdam), 23, 1985, pp. 36–41.Google Scholar

32 Many of the policies and programmes suggested in the collection edited by Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, Jolly, Richard, and Stewart, Frances, Adjustment with a Human Face, Vol. 1, Protecting the Vulnerable and Promoting Growth, and Vol 2, Country Case Studies (Oxford, 1987 and 1988), are unrealistic in the reality of the political economy in Africa and the international trading system.Google Scholar

33 Anyinam, C. A., ‘The Social Costs of the International Monetary Fund's Adjustment Programs for Poverty: the case of health care development in Ghana’, in International Journal of Health Services (Farmingdale, NY), 19, 1989, pp. 531–47,Google Scholar and McCullum, Hugh, ‘Africa's Debt: the children pay’, in The United Church Observer (Toronto), N.S. 52, 06 1989, pp. 18–24.Google Scholar

34 Longhurst, Richard, Kamara, Samura, and Mensurah, Joseph, ‘Structural Adjustment and Vulnerable Groups in Sierra Leone’, in IDS Bulletin (Brighton), 19, 1, 01 1988, pp. 25–30,Google Scholar and Campbell, Bonnie K. and Loxley, John (eds.), Structural Adjustment in Africa (London, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 Watts, Michael, Silent Violence: food, famine and peasantry in northern Nigeria (Berkeley, 1983)Google Scholar, and George, , op. cit.Google Scholar

36 George, , op. cit. pp. 4 and 6.Google Scholar

37 Ibid. p. 56. This is enhanced by I.M.F. ‘holier than thou’ writing.

38 Nyerere, Julius K., ‘Africa and the Debt Crisis’, in African Affairs (London), 84, 337, 10 1985, pp. 493–4.Google Scholar

39 Such pardons only serve to allow the élite to resume the past agendas which led to the current crises of the continent–in other words, they indicate to people like President Mobuto of Zaïre that they can renew their plunder because the day of reckoning has been delayed.

40 U.N.E.C.A, African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programmes for Socio-Economic Recovery and Transformation (Addis Ababa, 1989), E/ECA/CM.15/6/Rev.3.Google Scholar