World Bank Still Hasn't Learned to Listen

Zarina Geloo

The Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN) yesterday launched its executive summary on the 'Multi country participatory assessment of structural adjustment' in nine countries.

The document, which is based on findings from field research by civil society organisations in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, discusses in fine detail the impact of structural adjustment on poor countries.

It says structural adjustment policies (SAP) that were designed to increase competitiveness and stimulate investment have not achieved their objectives and actually deepened poverty in all countries where they were implemented.

The consequences of privatisation, says the report, include unemployment, the collapse of the manufacturing sector, and huge foreign debt service, which have crippled national economies rendering them unable to provide basic social services to citizens.

'All in all, people have suffered, rather than prospered under SAP,' says SAPRIN.

To redress the experiences of SAP in the past two decades there will have to be a significant shift away from the current model, according to the text.

'For most countries emphasis should be on the development of well-integrated economies in which there are strong linkages within and among the agricultural, industrial and other economic sectors. Trade policy should serve to build strong manufacturing sectors.'

Stephanie Weinberg, who presented the SAPRI report, said little of the analysis made its way into country programming or back to Washington - and none made it into the World Bank's own adjustment assessment.

Although the multilateral financial institution did acknowledge the importance of consultation, local knowledge, experience and analysis in the formulation of economic policies, it failed to demonstrate that it was willing to learn from the outcomes of local for a, according to Weinberg.

The report argues that the World Bank has also failed to address the critical assessment of the impact of its adjustment policies and has demonstrated that it is not interested in engaging civil society in meaningful endeavours to attend to issues that have driven so many to take to the streets in protest in both the North and South.