Africa, Agriculture and the World Bank

Abstract

In the 1970s the so-called developing countries, or the South, asked the Northern industrialised countries for an agreement on a New International Economic Order (NIEO) which would constitute an adjustment of the world economy along more equitable grounds. In other words, the South wanted specific changes to the operation of the world economy which would rectify the inequities of the existing order, and enable them to achieve higher levels of economic growth. This effort did not go far, despite years of negotiation. The debt crisis of the 1980s ushered in a fundamentally different era. Instead of engaging in discussions to restructure the global economy to better suit the South, in the 1980s the Northern governments began to pressure the South to adjust to the existing world economy. Many in the North were convinced that the present system was already fair and equitable, especially for those who liberalised their economies and repaid their debts. Pressure was exerted on the South to undertake economic reforms under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank. This era of structural adjustment has dominated the development debate in Africa in particular for the past 15 years.¹