Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T23:22:32.022Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The World Bank and African Poverty, 1973–91

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

Since 1987–8 the World Bank, together with other donors, has been engaged in a programme of activities known as ‘Social Dimensions of Adjustment’ (S.D.A.). This is the latest in a line of ‘pro-poor’ initiatives which the organisation has sponsored over the last two decades. This article analyses the Bank's succession of policies against the background of the changing political and economic world situation, as well as alternative policy agendas.

Type
Articles
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 Chenery, Hollis B. et al., Redistribution with Growth (Oxford, 1974).Google Scholar

2 van de Laar, A., The World Bank and the Poor (The Hague, 1980), pp. 100ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Ayres, Robert, Banking on the Poor: the World Bank and world poverty (Cambridge, MA, 1983), p. 103.Google Scholar

4 See van de Laar, op. cit.; Ayres, op. cit.; Payer, C., The World Bank: a critical analysis (New York, 1982);Google Scholar and Hayter, Tessa and Watson, C., Aid: rhetoric and reality (London, 1985).Google Scholar

5 McNamara, Robert S., Address to the Governors of the World Bank (Washington, DC, 1975), p. 20.Google Scholar

6 For a detailed exposition of cross-conditionality, see Bonné, Bjarne, ‘Development Assistance for Policies: aid and lending for stabilisation and adjustment in the emerging policy-based aid regime of the 1980s’ M.A. thesis, Roskilde University, Denmark, 1989. An important exception was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (B.C.C.I.), which continued to provide nonconditional finance to many L.D.C. governments throughout the 1980s.Google Scholar

7 Jolly, Richard, ‘Poverty and Adjustment in 1990s’, in J., Lewis (ed.), Strengthening the Poor: what have we learned? (New Brunswick, NJ, 1988).Google Scholar

8 Svendsen, Knud Erik, The Failure of the International Debt Strategy (Copenhagen, 1987), Centre for Development Research, Report No. 13,Google Scholar and Meinecke, G., Fattigdomsorienteret bistand: Verdensbankens overvejelser (Copenhagen, 1989), have described this process as it was initiated by the Nordic countries.Google Scholar

9 Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, Jolly, Richard, and Stewart, Frances (eds.), Adjustment with a Human Face, Vol. 1, Protecting the Vulnerable and Promoting Growth, and Vol. 2, Country Case Studies (Oxford, 1987 and 1988).Google Scholar

10 World Bank, World Development Report, 1980 (Washington, DC, 1980).Google Scholar

11 Ibid. pp. 40–1, 43–4, 62, and 71–8.

12 Stewart, Frances, ‘Alternative Macro Policies, Meso Policies, and Vulnerable Groups’, in Cornia, , Jolly, , and Stewart, (eds.), op. cit. Vol. I, pp. 151–7.Google Scholar

13 Cornia, Giovanni Andrea, ‘Social Policy-Making: restructuring, targeting efficiency’, in Cornia, Jolly, and Stewart (eds.), op. cit. Vol. I, pp. 169–70.Google Scholar

14 Stewart, loc. cit. p. 162.

15 The force of Stewart's argument was probably diminished not only be Cornia's heavy emphasis later in Adjustment with a Human Face on compensatory measures, but also by her declaration in ibid. p. 153 that ‘The appropriate policy package will vary according to country circumstances, and therefore cannot be laid down here’.

16 List of conditions attached to Pamscad, cited in Jolly, ‘Poverty and Adjustment in the 1990s’, p. 168.

17 Ibid. pp. 169–72

18 United Nations Development Programme, The Social Dimensions of Adjustment Project: an interim evaluation (New York, 1990), pp. 811.Google Scholar

19 World Bank, SDA Programme Discussion Paper (Washington, DC, 1991), p. 5.Google Scholar

20 World Bank, SDA Activity Report, April–September 1991 (Washington, DC, 1991), Table 3, p. 109.Google Scholar

21 World Bank, Making Adjustment Work for the Poor: a framework for policy reform in Africa (Washington, DC, 1990).Google Scholar

22 Ibid. p. 49.

23 Ibid. p. 90.

24 Ibid. p. 87.

25 Ibid. pp. 90–1.

26 Ibid. pp. 77–81.

27 The Social Dimensions of Adjustment Project, p. 114.

28 Ibid. introduction, p. x.

29 Ibid. p. 23.

30 World Bank position paper, quoted in ibid.

31 Grootaert, Christian and Marchant, Timothy et al., The Social Dimensions of Adjustment Priority Survey: an instrument for the rapid identification and monitoring of policy target groups (Washington, DC, 1991), S.D.A. in Sub-Saharan Africa Working Paper No. 12.Google Scholar

32 Cf. Kanbur, Ravi, Poverty and the Social Dimensions of Structural Adjustment in Côte d'Ivoire (Washington, DC, 1990), S.D.A. in Sub-Saharan Africa Policy Analysis, pp. 25–8.Google Scholar

33 Grootaert and Marchant et al., op. cit. p. 72.

34 E.g. Stephen Orvis, ‘Men, Women and Agriculture in Kisii’, African Studies Association, 1986.

35 Kanbur, op. cit. p. 3.

36 Grootaert and Marchant et al., op. cit. p. 76.Google Scholar

37 Ghana Statistical Service, Living Standards Measurement Survey. First Year September 1987–August 1988 (Accra, 1989), p. 92.Google Scholar

38 SDA Activity Report, Table 7, p. 113.

39 Ibid. p. 11.

40 Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagacar, Mauritius, and Sénégal.

41 SDA Programme Discussion Paper, pp. 10 and 82.

42 Government of Zimbabwe, Economic Policy and Statement: macro-economic adjustment and trade liberalisation (Harare, 1990), p. 6.Google Scholar

43 Ibid. p. 19.

44 Government of Zimbabwe, Framework for Economic Reform, 1991–95 (Harare, 1991), Annex III, pp. 818.Google Scholar

45 Ibid. p. 18.

46 Ibid. main report, p. 22.

47 Government of Zimbabwe, ‘Social Dimensions of Adjustment (SDA). A Programme of Actions to Mitigate the Social Costs of Adjustment’, Harare, November 1991, p. 14.

48 According to the Confederation of Zimbabwean Industry, the most that would be raised by such school fees was Z$80 million, as against a budget deficit of Z$1,400 million, while the effects on levels of workforce literacy and numeracy were potentially grave. See L. Sachikonye, ‘Structural Adjustment and Organized Labour in Zimbabwe’, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies Workshop, Harare, 1992.

49 SDA Activity Report, pp. 2–4.

50 Ibid. p. 3.

51 Ibid. pp. 6–7.

52 SDA Programme Discussion Paper, p. 6.

53 SDA Activity Report, p. 4.

54 Clark, John, ‘Oxfam Comments on World Development Report 1990’, Oxford, 1990.Google Scholar

55 Financial Times (London), 2 May 1991.Google Scholar

56 World Bank, World Development Report, 1991 (Washington, DC, 1991).Google Scholar

57 World Bank, Assistance Strategies to Reduce Poverty (Washington, DC, 1991).Google Scholar

58 Clark, John, the author of the Oxfam response in 1990, became the International Relations Officer in the World Bank's External Relations Department in October 1991.Google Scholar

59 For an extended discussion, see Mosley, Paul, Harrigan, J., and Toye, J., Aid and Power: the World Bank and policy-based lending in the 1980s (London, 1991).Google Scholar

60 See Fowler, Alan, Non-Governmental Organisations in Africa: achieving comparative advantage in relief and micro development (Brighton, 1988), I.D.S. Discussion Paper No. 249, and ‘The Role of NGOs in Changing State-Society Relations: perspectives from Eastern and Southern Africa’, in Development Policy Review (London), 9, 1, 1991, pp. 53–84.Google Scholar

61 Bratton, Michael, ‘The Politics of Government-NGO Relations in Africa’, in World Development (Oxford), 17, 4, 1989, pp. 569–87.Google Scholar

62 Fowler, ‘The Role of NGOs in Changing State-Society Relations’.

63 Malakela, G., ‘Girls' Educational Opportunities and Performance in Tanzania’, TADREG Research Report No. 2, Dar es Salaam, 1990.Google Scholar