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Structural adjustment programmes are the largest single cause of increased poverty, inequality and hunger in developing countries. The World Bank and the IMF have compelled country after country to adopt a ‘one size fits all’ economic strategy, so exposing the world’s weakest economies to the full force of the global market place. This is a comprehensive, real-life assessment of the impacts of the liberalization, deregulation, privatization and austerity that constitute structural adjustment. Its authors, the members of the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN), reveal the practical consequences for manufacturing, small enterprise, wages and conditions, social services, health, education, food security, poverty and inequality. The stark conclusion emerges: if there is to be any hope for meaningful development, structural adjustment and neoliberal economics must be jettisoned. CONTENTS List of Tables, Boxes and Figures List of Acronyms Acknowledgements SAPRIN and World Bank Global Steering Committee Members 1 Structural Adjustment and the SAPRI/CASA Experience 2 Trade Liberalization Policies and Their Impacts on the Manufacturing Sector 3 Financial Sector Liberalization: Effects on Production and the Small Enterprise Sector 4 Employment under Adjustment and the Effects of Labour Market Reform on Working People 5 The Economic and Social Impact of Privatization Programmes 6 The Impact of Agricultural Sector Adjustment Policies on Small Farmers and Food Security 7 The Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact of Mining Sector Reform 8 The Effects of Public Expenditure Policies on Education and Healthcare under Structural Adjustment 9 Structural Adjustment, Poverty and Inequality SAPRIN National Steering Committees Bibliography of SAPRI/CASA National Reports Index
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