Adjustment in Africa: Reforms, Results and the Road Ahead

9780195209945

019520994X

Examines whether Africa's disappointing economic performance reflects a failure to undertake structural adjustment reforms or a failure of those reforms to boost growth. Covers 29 African countries that underwent adjustment in the late 1980s. To reverse the economic decline that began in the 1970s, many Sub-Saharan countries initiated programs to pave the way for long-term development and prosperity by restructuring their economies. This report addresses just how much those countries undertaking reform actually changed their policies, the extent to which their policy reforms restored growth, and the future for adjustment. The report recognizes that adjustment can work in Africa but that it cannot work miracles in reducing poverty or ensuring sustained, equitable growth. African adjustment programs must go hand in hand with long-term development efforts to invest more in human capital and infrastructure, expand institutional capacity, and provide better governance.