Are Short-term Policies Consistent with Long-term Development Needs in Africa?

Abstract

Stabilisation and adjustment policies dominated policy-making in African countries throughout the 1980s. Given the persistence of the problems most countries are facing, it is likely that this situation will continue for the rest of the century. Most of the adjustment policies were formulated in collaboration with the major international financial institutions. During the 1980s, 34 countries had agreements with the IMF or the World Bank (UN/ECA, 1989). As the Vice President for the Africa region of the World Bank, has stated, ‘the Bank has, however unintentionally, assumed the dominant intellectual role on African issues’ (Jaycox, 1993b). The policies agreed with these institutions, particularly those associated with the IMF, were largely short-term in their main focus. Yet they have had important medium- and long-term implications, especially since they have been adopted over such a prolonged period. Thus, some countries had IMF agreements almost continuously throughout the 1980s, while many had two or more during the decade. Despite their medium-term implications, there appears to have been a tendency to neglect Africa’s longer-term needs in formulating adjustment policies. In some respects, indeed, it appears that the policies being pursued are actually moving African economies away from a desirable medium-term path.

This chapter draws heavily on a research project conducted at Queen Elizabeth House. The papers from this project were published in Stewart, F., S. Lall and S. Wangwe (eds), Alternative Development Strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa (London: Macmillan, 1992). I am grateful to the participants in the project, and especially my fellow editors, for many ideas contained in this chapter.