Structural Adjustment, Human Rights and the Budget
Speech given to Open Forum at Bulawayo
The phrase Structural Adjustment is being bandied about so much these days that it seems that it has always been with us. Whilst it is in vogues phrase it is in fact a new one in Zimbabwe at least. The same does not apply to the rest of Africa where many countries implemented structural adjustment programmes years ago. On a recent business trip to Tanzania I learnt from Ghanaian colleagues that the structural adjustment programme was initiated in Ghana some ten years ago and it has not been the panacea everyone hoped it would be. The fact is that some 38 developing countries have in the past few years attempted structural adjustment programmes and the failure rate has been extremely high. Professor Tony Hawkins, a Professor of Business Studies at the University of Zimbabwe recently wrote that “the hard truth is that nowhere in Africa - with the exception of Mauritius - has structural adjustment worked”. In fact in a book published by an Ethiopian author, Fantu Cheru, called The Silent Revolution in Africa, a rather depressing picture emerges about the failures of structural adjustment programmes in Africa. The title of the book describes the silent revolution of lower paid people who have been forced into the informal sector of the economy (including corrupt activities) because they have not been able to survive in the formal sector. All of this does not bode well for Zimbabwe and it is important that we learn from the failures of the rest of Africa as we seek to implement structural adjustment.