Structural adjustment programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s and 1990s: Implications for social policies and social rights

Abstract

The paper discusses the World Bank’s and International Monetary Fund’s Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Most countries in this region did not demonstrate autonomy in regard to national economic management and public policy processes, but acquiesced to the economic austerity prescriptions of the international financial institution, which were supposed to have resuscitated their economies. The paper seeks to provide some insights pertaining to how multilateral financial agencies engaged national governments, not as partners in a contractual relationship, but as servile actors. This situation was not mutually beneficial to both parties as interventions in local economies through financial injections had not resulted in easier repayment of loans by Sub-Saharan African governments. However, conditionalities tied to loans resulted in the erosion of social policies and social rights in Sub-Saharan Africa in the said period. Instead of shoring up economies of the countries in the region, SAPs had helped to weaken or even implode them. SAPs also eroded the social policy gains which were attained in the decade of independence in this region. The paper’s main contention is that Sub-Saharan African countries should bolster their institutions, policy-making mechanisms, and not make the same mistakes they did during that period, if they want to develop and be prosperous this century.