The Social Dimensions of Adjustment : A General Assessment
Inevitable as structural adjustment has been, and successful as it might be, the engagement with poverty in Africa is going to be a long-term affair. If growth does not restart, the reverse trickle-down may further jeopardize the most vulnerable gr...
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| Language: | English |
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Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1993/12/1614981/social-dimensions-adjustment-general-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10026 |
| Summary: | Inevitable as structural adjustment has
been, and successful as it might be, the engagement with
poverty in Africa is going to be a long-term affair. If
growth does not restart, the reverse trickle-down may
further jeopardize the most vulnerable groups in the
population, involving high transitional costs of adjustment.
Those costs arise from the reduction in real incomes
engendered by tighter monetary and fiscal policies, from
increased unemployment resulting from lags in supply
responses, from price adjustment in product and factor
markets, and from reduced availability of social services
following the contraction of public expenditures. The Social
Dimensions of Adjustment (SDA) program is to be reviewed as
a strategic reaction to that nascent concern about the
position of the poor in the process of structural
adjustment. It is seen as a catalyst of effective action
aimed at poverty reduction in the framework of structural
adjustment programs. SDA delineated four components:
analytical research, information gathering, social action
programs, and institution building and training. This paper
examines each of the major SDA components and attempts to
elaborate on the distinction between conjunctural
(adjustment-vulnerable) and structural (long-term) poor and
incorporates a high level of analysis as well as specific
innovations which are likely to withstand the test of time professionally. |
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