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SUMMARY:Structural Adjustment in Africa: Ghana and Kenya Compared\, 1981-1
 990 - Professor Gareth Austin (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20250303T171500Z
DTEND:20250303T190000Z
UID:TALK228724@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Gareth Austin
DESCRIPTION:The “Structural Adjustment” programmes of the 1980s consti
 tuted a radical liberalization of economic regime: a shift from administra
 tion to markets as the main means by which resources were allocated and go
 ods and services distributed. For the World Bank\, Structural Adjustment w
 as intended to be a watershed in economic policy in the countries in which
  it was introduced\, including most of tropical Africa: it meant dismantli
 ng the state-led development programs and associated institutions that mos
 t countries in the region had adopted after independence and continued to 
 pursue from the 1960s to the beginning of the 1980s. And a watershed it pr
 oved to be\, in that the institutional and policy regime introduced by the
  economic liberalization of the 1980s mostly continues in place to this da
 y.\n	Almost all left-wing and (politically) liberal commentators\, within 
 and without Africa\, attacked Structural Adjustment from the start as a ne
 ocolonial imposition catastrophic for the welfare of Africans. Today it is
  widely considered almost a truism\, by many scholars and other commentato
 rs\, that the causes and mechanisms of the “SAPs” compromised both the
  sovereignty of nations which had only relatively recently achieved politi
 cal independence\, and the welfare and cohesion of their societies.\n	Now 
 is an appropriate time to return to this controversy\, especially because 
 of the opening of archives on the 1980s\, bringing into the public domain 
 previously classified papers in the World Bank and IMF archives\, and in t
 he national archives of some African countries. The present paper is a pro
 visional statement from continuing research into the causes and short- and
  long-term effects of Structural Adjustment. It attempts an in-depth compa
 rison of two countries which\, while having much in common\, adopted econo
 mic liberalization in contrasting economic and political circumstances and
  with apparently very different outcomes: Kenya and Ghana. The conclusions
  challenge the consensus on the causes and effects of SAPs\, and show that
  the agency of Africans\, from small producers to heads of state\, has bee
 n underestimated in the literature.\n	This research is part of a collabora
 tive project on transformations in the world economy during the 1980s\, le
 d by Professor Shigeru Akita in Osaka.
LOCATION:Audit Room\, King's College\, Cambridge: to receive zoom link ple
 ase subscribe at https://lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscribe/history-global-ec
 onomic-history at https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/event-series/global-economic-
 history
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