Back to the future? A critical review of ‘adjustment in Africa: reforms, results and the road ahead’

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The World Bank's report, Adjustment in Africa, Reforms, Results, and the Road Ahead (hereafter A in A), provides the most comprehensive data so far on policy changes and results for adjusting Sub‐Sahara African countries. The report selectively uses data to prove that adjustment is working, payoffs to policy reforms are large, and the region is on the road to a sustained, poverty‐reducing growth path. A re‐evaluation of the report's own data suggests that there is sufficient evidence to be concerned about the sustainablity of adjustment results. After many years of experience with adjustment policies, growth rates are still low, as are saving and investment rates — even for the strong adjusters. Modest GDP, agricultural and industrial growth rates, combined with a deterioration in social services all cast doubt on the region's prospect for checking the growth of poverty before the next two or three decades.