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SAPRI Report Exposé Is Compulsary Reading, Says Review

The following review appeared in the Journal of the Inter-American Foundation,
Grassroots Development, Volume 28, Number 1, 2007.

Structural adjustment—the term has been a panacea for some and a curse for others. Political leaders and development experts have praised it and condemned it, but few have actually measured its impact on all sectors of a country’s economy. The Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN), a coalition of civil society organizations from nine countries on four continents, set out to do just that. The total effort was coordinated by The Development GAP of Washington, D.C., under the leadership of Steve and Doug Hellinger.

The initiative began with the World Bank’s endorsement and participation. “What I am looking for—and inviting your help in—is a different way of doing business in the future,” bank president James Wolfensohn wrote to SAPRIN in 1996 when the group was still incipient. But the cooperative spirit would not hold for the duration of the study. The Bank officially withdrew before it was completed and would not comment on SAPRIN’s final report.

For anyone in the development profession, this book is compulsory reading (more...)

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Past announcements and analysis:
A President Comes to Visit and the Chickens Home to Roost in South America (March 8, 2007)

Structural Adjustment: The SAPRI Report The Policy Roots of Economic Crisis, Poverty and Inequality 320 pages Language: English $29.95 paperback, $85.00 hardcover To order from the publisher click here

Ajuste Estructural: Informe SAPRI Una investigación participativa realizada por la Sociedad Civil y el Banco Mundial 288 pp. Lengua: castellano Precio: $29.95 Para ordenar de The Development GAP haga clic aquí

Description
Born of a unique five-year collaboration among citizens' groups, developing country governments, and the World Bank that was financed by European governments, UN agencies, US foundations and NGOs, this book represents the most comprehensive, real-life assessment of the actual impacts of the liberalization, deregulation, privatization and austerity policies that constitute structural adjustment programs. Its authors, the members of the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN) that engaged the World Bank's president in this ambitious endeavor, demonstrate the concrete consequences of adjustment policies for the manufacturing sector, small enterprises, the wages and conditions of working people, the delivery of social services, health and education spending, small farmers and food security, and poverty and inequality.

Praise for Structural Adjustment: The SAPRI Report
"This vitally important book cogently summarizes the various effects of structural adjustment and should be read by all who care about the developing world."--Martin Khor, Third World Network

"Structural Adjustment: The SAPRI Report illustrates the devastating impact that structural adjustment policies, undemocratically imposed by the international financial institutions, have had on national productive capacity, employment, wages and the growing number of people in poverty. It captures what we in Mexico and Latin America have fought against for the past two decades and is all the more pertinent given the intensifying challenges to neoliberalism in the region."--Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, former Senator, Governor and Mexican presidential candidate

"An excellent expose of how people's human rights are being sacrificed on the altar of the free market in the name of development."--Professor Fantu Cheru, former UN Special Rapporteur on Structural Adjustment

"This book documents a unique exercise in broad-based civil society participation, collaboration and engagement with official institutions. It represents a strong challenge to governments and the World Bank to open up economic policymaking to reflect local knowledge and realities."--Lidy Nacpil, International Coordinator, Jubilee South and Secretary General, Freedom from Debt Coalition (Philippines)

Table of contents
SAPRI/CASA Experience * Trade Liberalization Policies and Their Impact on the Manufacturing Sector * Financial Sector Liberalization, Effects on Production and the Small Enterprise Sector: Bangladesh, Ecuador, El Salvador and Zimbabwe * Employment under Adjustment and the Effects of Labor Market Reform on Working People: Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Zimbabwe * The Economic and Social Impact of Privatization Programs: Bangladesh, El Salvador, Hungary and Uganda * The Impact of Agricultural Sector Adjustment Policies on Small Farmers and Food Security: Bangladesh, Mexico, the Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe * The Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact of Mining Sector Reform: Ghana and the Philippines * The Effects of Public Expenditure Policies on Education and Health Care under Structural Adjustment: Ecuador, Ghana, Hungary, Mexico, the Philippines, Uganda and Zimbabwe * Structural Adjustment, Poverty and Inequality