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----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Brown <CharlesB@CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us>
To: <brc-news@igc.org>
Sent: Monday, May 10, 1999 2:55 AM
Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Economic Genocide in Africa


> A Survey of the Impacts of IMF Structural Adjustment in Africa:
> Growth, Social Spending, and Debt Relief
>
> April 1999
>
> by Robert Naiman and Neil Watkins
> (Research Associates at the Preamble Center)
>
> Summary:
>
> The data reviewed in this study suggest that the International Monetary
> Fund has failed in Africa, in terms of its own stated objectives and
> according to its own data. Increasing debt burdens, poor growth
> performance, and the failure of the majority of the population to improve
> their access to education, health care, or other basic needs has been the
> general pattern in countries subject to IMF programs.
>
> The core elements of IMF structural adjustment programs have remained
> remarkably consistent since the early 1980s. Although there has been
> mounting criticism and calls for reform over the last year and a half--as
> a result of the Fund's intervention in the Asian and Russian financial
> crises--no reforms of the IMF or its policies have been forthcoming. And
> there are as yet no indications from the Fund itself that it sees any need
> for reform. In fact, IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus has repeatedly
> referred to the Asian economic collapse as "a blessing in disguise."
>
> In the absence of any reform at the IMF for the foreseeable future, the
> need for debt cancellation for Africa is all the more urgent. This
> enormous debt burden consumed 4.3% of sub-Saharan Africa's GNP in 1997. If
> these resources had been devoted to investment, the region could have
> increased its economic growth by nearly a full percentage point--sadly
> this is more than twice its per capita growth for that year. But the debt
> burden exacts another price, which may be even higher than the drain of
> resources out of the country:  it provides the means by which the IMF is
> able to impose the conditions of its structural adjustment programs on
> these desperately poor countries.
>
> Any debt relief that is tied to structural adjustment, or other
> conditionality imposed by the IMF--as it is in the HIPC initiative--could
> very well cause more economic harm than good to the recipients. Debt
> relief should be granted outside the reach of this institution, preferably
> without conditions. Moreover, the role of the Fund in Africa and
> developing countries generally, and especially its control over major
> economic decisions, should be drastically reduced. Any efforts to provide
> additional funding or authority to the IMF, before the institution has
> been fundamentally reformed, would be counter-productive.
>
> Full Report:
>
> http://www.preamble.org/IMFinAfrica.htm
>
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