A critical appraisal of the World Bank's structural adjustment programs and poverty reduction strategy papers in Africa

Abstract

The official aims of the World Bank development programs - SAPs and PRSPs - in Africa and other developing countries are to promote local productivities, advance economic choices, improve living standards, maximise economic competencies, reduce government expenditures, and realise economic development. Based on these promising development policies, many African countries adopted those programs in the early 1980s as a panacea to their worst political and economic problems. Accordingly, this study critically examines the effectiveness of the World Bank's development programs - SAPs and PRSPs - in contemporary Africa. Moreover, the study rationally appraises the multi-dimensional consequences of SAPs and PRSPs in Africa. To this end, the study finds that these programs of the World Bank have brought massive socio-political and economic crises to contemporary Africa. Hence, rethinking the World Bank's development programs should be the prior duty of African states to escape from the existing chaos in almost every sector.