Structural adjustment and social policy in Mozambique

Abstract

This article analyses the social costs of Mozambique's Economic Recovery Programme, sponsored by the World Bank and introduced in 1987. The programme has had some success in arresting economic decline, though not as fast as anticipated. However, social differentiation has increased, with traders, large farmers, corrupt state and military officials and private entrepreneurs gaining from the changes, while women, children and the poor in particular are finding their standards of living dropping sharply with devastating consequences for their health and nutritional status. The article uses the findings of research studies and interviews with urban dwellers on the issues of food supply, education and health to support this analysis. The loss to the IMF and the World Bank of Mozambican control over economic policy, the increase in human suffering with its potential for social and political breakdown, and the appropriateness of the programme in conditions of war, are the three central issues which have to be faced by proponents of this kind of adjustment.