Current poverty, structural adjustment, and drought in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Considering the impact of economic structural adjustment programs (ESAP) on the poor is not straightforward because ESAP involves changes affecting future poverty as well as the currently poor. In addition, structural adjustment measures occur alongside other events which may have additive as well as interactive effects with ESAP. In Zimbabwe, for example, the initial years of ESAP implementation overlapped with the onset of a major drought in 1991–92. Understanding changes affecting the poor during the period thus involves considering both these events. This paper considers the effects which ESAP and the drought had on the poor in Zimbabwe during the initial years of the structural adjustment process from 1990–94. Relevant background information on structural adjustment and drought in Zimbabwe are presented. The effects which ESAP and drought had on three areas critical to the currently poor: 1. (a) health services, 2. (b) employment and wages, and 3. (c) food security are then considered. Finally, major government programs specifically targeted at the poor during the period (the Social Development Fund and Poverty Alleviation Action Plan) are discussed. It is concluded that ESAP and drought events adversely affected health, employment and wages, and food security and thus had negative impacts on the poor from 1990–94. Given recurrent drought and the continuing process of adjustment in Zimbabwe, government flexibility in implementing ESAP as well as coordination of efforts to protect the poor from the negative outcomes of both drought and adjustment is recommended. The government's recent Poverty Alleviation Action Plan may mark a new phase in which reduction of current poverty, the protection of the currently poor, and future poverty alleviation may go hand in hand.