Adjusting Inequality: Education and Structural Adjustment Policies in Tanzania

2005 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCES VAVRUS
Keyword(s):  
Educational Policy ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Local Setting ◽  
Adjustment Policies ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Policy Fields ◽  
The Impact

International economic forces increasingly affect policy at multiple levels and in multiple domains. The interplay of three levels — international, national, and local — are underresearched in the social and educational policy fields, which includes educational policy studies. In this article, Frances Vavrus employs ethnography to investigate how these interactions play out in a Chagga community in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. She examines how the lives of secondary students in Tanzanian schools are affected by structural adjustment policies, adopted by Tanzania at the advice of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in three domains: access to schooling, opportunities for employment, and the risk of HIV/AIDS infection. She makes a convincing case for the importance of understanding the local setting in the development of international and national policy, and for investigating the impact policy change in noneducational sectors has on educational realities. Vavrus's research also provides a glimpse into the multiple local consequences of the policy of user fees for school access that were implemented over the last fifteen years in Tanzania and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. She concludes with a call for the research community to consider the benefits of ethnography in the development and evaluation of policy.

The World Bank and Child Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Coburn ◽  
Michael Restivo ◽  
John M. Shandra
Keyword(s):  
Child Mortality ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Fixed Effects Regression ◽  
The Impact

We examine the impact of World Bank structural adjustment and health lending on child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2005. We use two-way fixed effects regression models to analyze data for a sample of thirty-one Sub-Saharan African nations. We find that when a Sub-Saharan African nation receives a World Bank structural adjustment loan then it tends to have higher levels of child mortality than when it does not receive such a loan. Conversely, we find that when a Sub-Saharan African nations receives a World Bank investment loan in the health sector then it tends to have lower levels of child mortality than it if does not receive an investment health loan. We conclude by talking about the theoretical implications, methodological implications, policy suggestions, limitations of the study, and possible avenues for future research.

Structural adjustment and market imperfections: a stylized village economy-wide model with non-separable farm households

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEIN T. HOLDEN ◽  
J. EDWARD TAYLOR ◽  
STEPHEN HAMPTON
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Credit Rationing ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Adjustment Policies ◽  
The Impact

Village economies and peasant households represent the main link between the economy and the environment in sub-Saharan Africa. The links from the macro level and down to the household level and further to the natural resource base are complex. It may therefore be difficult to predict the impact of macro policies and external shocks on the environment. This paper presents a typology of village economies and village economy-wide models. The framework is applied to a special case where a model is proposed and estimated to examine the impacts of external shocks, including structural adjustment policies, on cash-crop production and chitemene (shifting cultivation) in a remote Zambian village characterized by a missing (or negligible) labour market, input supply constraints, and credit rationing. Our findings indicate that structural adjustment policies, by decreasing the profitability of maize production, may encourage households to increase their chitemene production, resulting in more rapid deforestation.

What Can Be Expected from International Frameworks to Regulate Large-Scale Land and Water Acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa?

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brüntrup ◽  
Waltina Scheumann ◽  
Axel Berger ◽  
Lidija Christmann ◽  
Clara Brandi
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis paper explores the use of international governance frameworks as being one of the ways to regulate large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs). LSLAs are currently flourishing in both developed and developing countries, in particular in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Although they can potentially have many positive impacts in rural areas, many LSLAs have been shown to mainly produce negative impacts in poor countries with weak national policy and institutional frameworks and poorly defined rights for rural people. To successfully regulate the occurrence of LSLAs and their impacts, it needs to be understood that LSLAs are more complex than they are usually portrayed as being. Some of the complexities pertain to water issues; provenience of investors; legality and legitimacy of acquisitions; as well as the diversity of actors and the people affected. Against this background, five international frameworks are looked at: human rights, voluntary international guidelines, international global water governance regimes and bi-/multilateral river treaties, and voluntary private standards and codes. The paper concludes that the frameworks reviewed provide valuable guidance regarding LSLAs, but no single approach can help in dealing with the multitude of actors, situations, and impacts of LSLAs. Even if they are considered collectively, they can tackle many but not all challenges. Yet, their implementation could substantially improve the process and the impact of LSLAs, including their refusal. A key question is how these frameworks are deployed at the local level. Some rely on translation into national laws and on their implementation, others try to establish a direct linkage between the international and the local level. It is of great interest to study how international frameworks trickle down to local policy arenas, how they are used by stakeholders, and how they are finally shaping conflicts at the local level and affecting their results. In particular, their potential for empowering poor stakeholders should be of interest for research and development.

Conflicts in Biafra, Katanga and Cabinda as a result of the geopolitical legacy of colonialism

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-3) ◽  
pp. 238-246
Author(s):  
Olga Dzhenchakova
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Economic Factor ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact

The article considers the impact of the colonial past of some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and its effect on their development during the post-colonial period. The negative consequences of the geopolitical legacy of colonialism are shown on the example of three countries: Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Angola, expressed in the emergence of conflicts in these countries based on ethno-cultural, religious and socio-economic contradictions. At the same time, the focus is made on the economic factor and the consequences of the consumer policy of the former metropolises pursuing their mercantile interests were mixed.

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