what is stuctural adjustment programme? has it ever worked in any country? why proposing it to africa by IMF?

Question

what is stuctural adjustment programme? has it ever worked in any country? why proposing it to africa by IMF?

Answer 1

Structural adjustment programs are programs that are implemented by the world bank and IMF as requirments to recieve loan funds. These programs are stict guidlines that a country must follow if it wants to recieve funds from said organizations. They are typically economic policy requirments that are directed towards a given countries economy. They involve things like currency valuation changes (to help stablize a currency), Price and wage liberlization (to assist with efficient free market opperations) government budget constraints (to prevent overspending by the goverment and government officals) and various other programs directed toward improving the overal functionality of the economy.



These programs are typically directed toward countries that have a history of nonrepayment of debt and governmental corruption. I dont know of any specific cases were this has been implemented (not really my area of study) but look on the IMF and world bank sites for more information about specific cases.



This is something that the IMF and World bank has been trying to implement in africa because of the high degree of failing economies and corrupt governments in an attempt to improve these cases.