Structural Adjustment and Structural Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Provisional Conclusions

This article reviews discussions concerning some of the main methodological difficulties surrounding the evaluation of structural adjustment policies, before suggesting a procedure to ‘save’ empirical discussion about new patterns of economic and social relations. In this light it proceeds to examine evidence gathered by the structural adjustment research programme of Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Scandinavian Institute of African Studies) on the changing character of the ‘private sector’ and of the voluntary development sphere in contemporary Africa. The main conclusions are that, in what can be called ‘adjustment situations’, the main tendencies in these spheres are for a rise of trading capitals enjoying illicit relations to the state and for a privatization of local development. The article concludes with an argument that, had adjustment been implemented in a fuller and more consistent way, these tendencies would probably have been still more pronounced.     

Structural Adjustment and Performance in Living Standards in Developing Countries

Over the years, the World Bank's structural adjustment programmes have been criticized on the grounds that they have adverse effects on the living standards of the people in developing countries. The main objective of this article is to test the hypothesis that the adjustment lending countries have had a superior (or inferior) performance to the non-adjustment lending countries during the 1980s. A new dummy variable regression model is used to test this hypothesis. The model controls for initial conditions, external shocks and other exogenous variables which affect different countries differently. The standard of living is measured by several socioeconomic variables including per capita income, lifeexpectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, and literacy rate.     

Structural Adjustment,Democratization and Rising Ethnic Tensions in Africa

Structural adjustment, democratization and rising ethnic tensions characterize the current situation in much of Africa today. This article examines how these tendencies interact causally. It begins by describing Africa's growing debt (combined with defence) burden, the nature of the structural adjustment programme (SAP), particularly its pressures and contradictions, and the increasingly authoritarian responses generated by these. After illustrating the linkage between SAP and rising ethnic tensions, it is suggested that the issue of the distribution of power, wealth and ethnicity, especially under conditions of increasing scarcity, needs to be reconsidered. There are a number of reasons why ethnic and regional tensions are exacerbated by debts, economic crisis and adjustment in Africa; a core argument of this article is that the current ethnic tensions, like the ongoing democratic struggles, are arising as part of the general resistance against both SAP, because of its pauperizing impact, and against the state, which is seen as increasingly coercive and as negligent of its basic welfare responsibilities towards its citizens. The article ends by considering the implications of the coincidence of these two foci of resistance not only for the democratization project, but also for the survival of the state in Africa.     

公共危机治理主体的多元化及结构分析

政府失败理论、治理理论、利益相关者理论和协同理论为公共危机治理主体多元化提供了强有力的理论支撑。在多元主体结构中,政府是公共危机治理的主导力量,也是核心主体;民间组织是公共危机治理的重要力量,也是联系政府与公民的纽带;企业和公民是公共危机治理的基础;媒体是公共危机治理的重要媒介,也是政府与其他主体合作互助信息平台的主要搭建者。     

Structural Adjustment and Poverty Alleviation: An Interpretative Survey

There are few simple generalizations about the effects of adjustment programmes on poverty. There remain many data and methodological problems, and outcomes are complex and varied. Poverty groups often are harmed by adjustment programmes, especially the urban working poor, but there has been a tendency to over-emphasize negative outcomes. There are many other influences on poverty. In the long term, adjustment is essential to the eradication of poverty. The principal responsibility for achieving anti-poverty objectives must lie with national governments but they do not always display much concern with the poor. However, the international financial institutions must share the responsibility and could do more to design structural adjustment programmes within a cost-minimizing framework. The principal policy tasks are to formulate a long-term anti-poverty strategy and ensure that adjustment policies are consistent with that, without detracting from the imperative of adapting the economy to changing circumstances.     

Structural Adjustment and Subsistence Industry: Artisanal Gold Mining in Ghana

Since the implementation of Ghana's national Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), policies associated with the programme have been criticized for perpetuating poverty within the country's subsistence economy. This article brings new evidence to bear on the contention that the SAP has both fuelled the uncontrolled growth of informal, poverty‐driven artisanal gold mining and further marginalized its impoverished participants. Throughout the adjustment period, it has been a central goal of the government to promote the expansion of large‐scale gold mining through foreign investment. Confronted with the challenge of resuscitating a deteriorating gold mining industry, the government introduced a number of tax breaks and policies in an effort to create an attractive investment climate for foreign multinational mining companies. The rapid rise in exploration and excavation activities that has since taken place has displaced thousands of previously‐undisturbed subsistence artisanal gold miners. This, along with a laissez faire land concession allocation procedure, has exacerbated conflicts between mining parties. Despite legalizing small‐scale mining in 1989, the Ghanaian government continues to implement procedurally complex and bureaucratically unwieldy regulations and policies for artisanal operators which have the effect of favouring the interests of established large‐scale miners.     

Land Diversification

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Foreign Aid,Structural Adjustment,and Public Management: The Mozambican Experience

In looking at the case of Mozambique under structural adjustment, this article argues that the particular combination of fiscal restraints imposed by financial programming, and the proliferation of decentralized project-based management, together proved to be a potent mixture which failed to reconstruct a coherent pattern of state action. The problem lies in the increasing dominance of foreign aid and in the uneasy interplay between programme aid on the one hand and project aid on the other, as competition from projects wins resources away from regular state programmes, with very little prospect of such projects becoming self-sustainable in the absence of the continued infusion of foreign aid.     

比较优势与青海省农牧业结构调整

本文利用“显示”比较优势法 (RCA)对青海省具有代表性的豆类、食用植物油、活畜禽 (主要为活牛 )、肉食　　 (主要为冻牛肉 )、蔬菜、中药材、畜产品等几类农畜产品进行定量分析 ,表明青海省农畜品中中药材、豆类、畜产品、活畜禽、肉食具有比较优势 ,而蔬菜、食用植物油不具备比较优势 ,在此基础上对豆类、蔬菜、中药材、畜产品进行了细分及比较优势分析 ,提出了青海省农牧业结构调整的对策建议。     

Rural Credit in Zambia: Access and Exit

I am grateful for comments from Geoff Lamb, Paul Isenman, and Robert Chambers. ‘Exit’ is a reference to A. O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty, Cambridge, Mass., 1970, and to B. B. Schaffer and G. B. Lamb, ‘Exit, Voice and Access’, Social Science Information, December 1974.     

“以结构调整为主线”方略辩析

在新时期,我国的经济建设将“以结构调整为主线”。针对这一方略,本对“以结构调整为主线”方略的理论与现实基础予以分析和说明,并就经济结构调整的目标、核心和根本提出自己的看法。     

海峡西岸旅游产业结构布局现状评析与调整对策

海峡西岸旅游产业在全国和亚太地区占有重要地位,旅游产业结构布局的调整有重大意义.当前海峡西岸旅游产业偏重观光游览,旅游投入偏少;偏重自然景观,旅游文化发掘不够;偏重旅行消费,旅游六要素不完备;偏重旅游旺季,时间上经营不平衡;偏重低级竞争,市场无序现象还比较严重.旅游产业布局存在旅游集散地与目的地错位、星散布局缺乏整合、重复布局分散客流、单体布局缺乏联系等问题.海峡西岸旅游产业结构布局调整应集中精力抓准重点,延长产业链,设计旅游精品,调整布局构建多级布局体系.     

Rural-Urban Relations,Household Income Diversification and Agricultural Productivity

Does rising income from agriculture drive the growth of nonfarm activities, or does increased income from nonfarm activities spur the growth of agriculture? This paper looks at the role of nonfarm income in enabling smallholders to raise agricultural output and productivity. Based on data from a sample of farm households near Kutus town in the Kirinyaga district of Kenya, it examines these issues by looking at the use of resources for farm production, the risks attached to alternative ways of raising output and productivity, and the household's propensity to accept risk as a function of the extent to which it is able to draw on liquid assets or diversified sources of income. The authors argue that nonfarm income provides households with a form of insurance against the risks of farming, and thus enables them to adopt new production methods and raise output. They argue further that a key factor in creating opportunities for rural households to earn nonfarm income is the presence of vibrant small towns nearby.