Painful reforms, punished incumbents: the politics of economic adjustment

The success of implementing any developmental plan is related to the progress achieved by the country in the field of local competition within the country itself. Also, to build a strong and broad base of local suppliers, as well as creating a high awareness and continuous requirements of the domestic consumer, making adoption of sound economic reform program, which, in turn, accelerates economic development, which is located within the priorities of the national plans. So, this study has made an explanation of the concept of economic reform, its main objectives, its success factors and the obstacles to its application. The study showed that there are several strategic approaches to achieve the economic reform program include the totalitarian approach, which considers the economic reform as an integral part of the political, economic and social situations, and launches towards economic development and reform in the framework of a comprehensive strategy. Also, there is the partial approach that launches towards reform via the gradual reform and considers reform as a restoration process of the constituent parts of update inputs, such as increased productivity, achieve a measure of economic and social equity, establish new knowledge and develop the institutions of production and services. The study concluded that the program of economic reform in Egypt and the Arab world has not achieved its objectives for many reasons such as not taking into account the economic and material dimension, the social dimension, the legal dimension, and the cultural dimension. For the economic development, it has not achieved its goals as a result of lack of a clear plan for economic reform program, productive variety, unemployment, specialization; legislations support market, the economic entity of local ruling, the intermediary institutions between the state and the market, the structure of information and communications, the international trade and export and finally, the elite of management. The success of implementing any developmental plan is related to the progress achieved by the country in the field of local competition within the country itself. Also, to build a strong and broad base of local suppliers, as well as creating a high awareness and continuous requirements of the domestic consumer, making adoption of sound economic reform program, which, in turn, accelerates economic development, which is located within the priorities of the national plans. So, this study has made an explanation of the concept of economic reform, its main objectives, its success factors and the obstacles to its application. The study showed that there are several strategic approaches to achieve the economic reform program include the totalitarian approach, which considers the economic reform as an integral part of the political, economic and social situations, and launches towards economic development and reform in the framework of a comprehensive strategy. Also, there is the partial approach that launches towards reform via the gradual reform and considers reform as a restoration process of the constituent parts of update inputs, such as increased productivity, achieve a measure of economic and social equity, establish new knowledge and develop the institutions of production and services. The study concluded that the program of economic reform in Egypt and the Arab world has not achieved its objectives for many reasons such as not taking into account the economic and material dimension, the social dimension, the legal dimension, and the cultural dimension. For the economic development, it has not achieved its goals as a result of lack of a clear plan for economic reform program, productive variety, unemployment, specialization; legislations support market, the economic entity of local ruling, the intermediary institutions between the state and the market, the structure of information and communications, the international trade and export and finally, the elite of management.

Purpose: This article aims to investigate social protection knowledge and strategies and their implementation in selected countries in Southern Africa, namely Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Eswatini, Zambia, and South Africa. The article is part of ongoing policy and practical debates on development and poverty reduction in Africa. Methodology: The article employs a conceptual research approach to identify the social protection strategies in seven Southern African countries that were chosen purposefully due to the nature and depth of the programs. Conceptual research was underpinned by a review of primary and secondary literature available in both academic and grey formats accessed from the Google Scholar database. Findings: The article shows elderly grants, child grants, and disability grants were the most common in the selected countries. It was also found that governments believed that social protection strategies could help reduce poverty and vulnerability. However, except for South Africa, these countries did not have permanent strategies to implement and sustain social protection. Originality/Value: The article highlights how institutions can be strengthened to reinforce social protection systems and ensure sustainability. The article, thus, showcases practical conduits through which the social protection systems in the selected countries can be strengthened.

Managers and administrators in charge of social protection and health financing, service purchasing and provision play a crucial role in harnessing the potential advantage of prudent organization, management and purchasing of health services, thereby supporting the attainment of Universal Health Coverage. However, very little is known about the needed quantity and quality of such staff, in particular when it comes to those institutions managing mandatory health insurance schemes and purchasing services. As many health care systems in low- and middle-income countries move towards independent institutions (both purchasers and providers) there is a clear need to have good data on staff and administrative cost in different social health protection schemes as a basis for investing in the development of a cadre of health managers and administrators for such schemes. We report on a systematic literature review of human resources in health management and administration in social protection schemes and suggest some aspects in moving research, practical applications and the policy debate forward.

This paper assesses the performance of the monetary policy in Egypt during the periods following the introduction of the economic reform and structural adjustment program (ERSAP). It sets out to answer the question why the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has not been able to achieve the goal of price stability under the ERSAP? The study compares the economic performance from the 1990s with both its counterpart in Germany, during the same periods, and with the economic performance of the Egyptian economy during the periods before the 1990s, i.e., 1975-1990. The study concludes that the CBE could have brought the rate of infl ation down; nevertheless, the unemployment and real GDP growth rates have worsened and a price stability is still far away. The failure to achieve price stability is explained by two reasons, namely, a conflict between monetary policy objectives and a chronic budget deficit financed by issuing new money.

The recent economic crisis in Sri Lanka has had a devastating impact on each economic sector, and the construction sector is no exception. Hence, the Sri Lankan government has entered into an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to perform an economic reform programme to uplift the country from its insolvent position. However, there is a lack of studies on the impact of economic reforms on the construction industry. Hence, this research aims to identify the impacts of the current economic reform programme of the Sri Lankan government on the construction sector. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to understand the economic crisis, the economic reform programme and its impact on Sri Lanka. Further, under the qualitative research approach, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the experts in the construction sector selected through purposive sampling. The collected data was analysed through code-based content analysis using N-Vivo software and manual content analysis. According to the findings, import restrictions, increased material prices and fuel shortages were highlighted as the major challenges faced by the industry, which led to project terminations, staff turnover, increased construction costs, and bankruptcies. Further, IMF programme objectives such as restoring macro economy, ensuring debt sustainability, establishing export-driven economy and emphasising anti-corruption are appreciated by the experts while highlighting the need for more objectives to be included in future revisions. . Findings of this study can be utilised by the government to improve its reform programme in future to safeguard the construction industry.

Social Protection of the population in Uzbekistan is one of the continuous priorities in the program of economic reforms and is a priority at all stages of reforms. A strong social protection policy is being pursued by the state in building a socially oriented market economy in the country. A strong social policy is one of the leading principles of Uzbekistan's path to independence and development. One of the most important forms of social protection of the population is pension provision.

Social protection strategies, and cash transfer programmes in particular, have been on the rise globally since the early 2000s. By 2019, 35 African countries had adopted a national social protection policy or strategy. Cash plus approaches (including graduation programmes) addressing a wider range of socioeconomic outcomes emerged more recently and have expanded quickly. The Zambian government approved a cash plus approach in 2022, and a range of cash plus interventions are already being implemented. Exploring cash plus experiences and evidence from other countries is key to informing programme development, with a focus on what we can learn from these contexts that is relevant for Zambia. This includes ‘what works’ in terms of different combinations of cash plus components as well as how to deliver through national and local governance structures.

Sustainability of universal health coverage in Italy: a modelling study

Reports that the number of new social safety net programs launched has increased in Africa over the last decade, and every African country has established at least one social safety net program. Program design varies across the region, with the most common programs focused on cash transfers, public works, or school feeding. Evolving designs feature more use of cash, programs designed to respond to climate change, a concentration on productive capacity and resilience, and programs promoting human capital development. Among all programs, 29 percent directly target children through nutrition interventions, benefits aimed at orphans and other vulnerable children, school feeding programs, provision of school supplies, and education benefits or fee waivers; 31 percent target households more broadly; and some programs can achieve gender-relevant impacts if they are thoughtfully designed with this aim. Although programs have been expanded, most of the poor in Africa are still not covered by social safety nets.

This article hypothesizes that economic reforms become sustainable when the discursive conditions prevailing in society tip against the existing paradigm under exceptional circumstances. Thus, unless the pro-liberalization constituencies dominate the development discourse, economic reforms, initiated under the exigencies of crisis and conditionalities, or carried out by a convinced executive with or without the stimulus of a crisis, will be reversed. The discursive conditions are determined based on eight factors: the dominant view of international intellectuals, illustrative country cases, executive orientations, political will, the degree and the perceived causes of economic crisis, attitudes on the part of donor agencies, and the perceived outcomes of economic reforms. The paper seeks to prove this “discursive dominance” hypothesis for the Indian case through a cross-temporal, comparative review of the evolution of economic policy in India over six different phases.

BackgroundIn sub-Saharan African context, effect of system, institutional and client-level factors on formal healthcare utilisation among older adults with low income, especially those under a social protection scheme (called Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty [LEAP] programme) is least explored in the literature. However, an adequate understanding of how these factors contribute to formal healthcare utilisation among older adults who are classified as poor (in terms of low income) is important to inform health policy decisions. The aim of this study, therefore, was to examine the contributions of system, institutional and client-level factors in formal healthcare utilisation among older adults with low income under the LEAP programme in Ghana.MethodsData associated with this study were obtained from an Ageing, Health, Lifestyle and Health Services survey conducted between 1 and 20 June 2018 (N = 200) in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal and Atwima Nwabiagya North District of Ghana. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to determine system, institutional and client-level factors associated with formal healthcare utilisation among older adults with low income under the LEAP programme in Ghana. The significance of the test was set at a probability value of 0.05 or below.ResultsThe study revealed that participants who relied on the LEAP programme and/or health insurance subscription to cater for their healthcare expenses (AOR: 11.934, CI: 1.151-123.777), those whose family/caregivers decided on when and where to use formal healthcare (AOR:12.409; CI: 2.198–70.076) and those who did not encounter communication problem with healthcare providers (AOR: 1.358; CI: 1.074–3.737) were significantly more likely to utilise formal healthcare services compared with their counterparts. The study further found that participants who perceived the attitude of healthcare providers as poor (AOR: 0.889; CI: 0.24–0.931) and those who spent 20–40 minutes at the healthcare facility were significantly less likely to utilise formal healthcare services compared with their counterparts (AOR: 0.070; CI: 0.006–0.195).ConclusionOur findings suggest that reducing waiting time at healthcare facilities, improving social protection and/or health insurance schemes, improving patient-doctor communication and promoting attitudinal change programmes (such as orientations and supportive supervision) for healthcare providers may help to facilitate the use of needed formal healthcare services by older adults with low income in Ghana.

ABSTRACTBased on qualitative research with migrants, their children and key informants in Albania, this paper investigates the experiences of return migrants with social protection and their positionality towards social protection stakeholders. Return migration to Albania has intensified in the past few years due to the economic crisis in different European countries where many Albanians have migrated to since the beginning of the 1990s. Findings of multisited fieldwork testify to the centrality of social protection in the process of migrants’ relocation to the country of origin. Due to the trans-national and trans-temporal dimensions of the return process, access to and overall experiences of social protection are mediated by different understandings and regulation of the thresholds of vulnerability, need and welfare held by return migrants, locals, policy makers and service providers. These staggered understandings and thresholds are embedded in an observed trans-national and trans-local developmental gap between the country of immigration and country of origin where migrants relocate to. Resource environment in the context of return is, therefore, characterised by cognitive and material discontinuities at trans-national and trans-temporal level. Experiences of these discontinuities impact on returnees’ social protection strategies and have significant implications for their social and economic positioning upon return to the country of origin.

Unlike the Hungarians, who had agreed on a programme of economic reform two years before it was implemented, China's economic reforms evolved in the midst of bitter debates and controversies. Typically, unfavourable developments in the economy would trigger off opposition to the economic reform, expressed in theoretical disagreements; meanwhile the reform programme would have to mark time to await theoretical clearance. It was not until October 1984, six years after the reforms first began, that the Chinese leaders finally formulated a model or programme of economic reform in a formal decision of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).1 There are three reasons for this extraordinarily long gestation period. First, the reforms began as a series of localised experiments which were later adopted by central authorities. There was no direct relationship between the local experiments in Sichuan where Zhao Ziyang, now Premier, was at the time First Secretary of the provincial Party and the national reform programme.2 The Sichuan initiatives placed overwhelming emphasis on enterprises rather than on unified planning control, whereas in the national discussion those economists and central leaders in charge of research and propaganda still dealt with reform of the planning system in terms of pre-Cultural Revolution thinking. Second, the economic reforms were initiated at a time when the national economy was in a state of macro-economic and structural imbalance. This called for economic readjustment (retrenchment) and cast doubt on the immediate relevance of the economic reform. The ensuing debate on whether economic readjustment should

The end of the cold war was to bring about significant changes at the political level in Africa. No longer prepared to prop up dictatorial regimes that had served their strategic interests in a battle against communism, Western powers now turned their attentions to the promotion of ‘democracy and good governance’ as an accompaniment to the neo-liberal ‘structural adjustment’ programmes of economic reform that they had been imposing upon client states since the 1980s. The prodding of one-party and military governments into moving towards competitive multi-partyism consequently became increasingly central to donor countries’ activities from the early 1990s, with the logic of such ‘democracy assistance’ requiring that recipient countries redesign their political institutions to reflect the liberal-democratic values that now became the global referent. The outcome was uneven, not least because many countries in Africa remained mired in internal conflict and vicious wars. Nonetheless, there was a broad shift throughout the continent towards democratisation, not least because the opponents of incumbent regimes took good advantage of the increased political space to challenge governments, and in a substantial number of cases, to displace them by defeating ruling parties in competitive elections (see Chapter 8). Yet donor-driven reform programmes do not always work out as originally intended. Hence, while democracy assistance in Africa has sought to steer diverse countries towards competitive multi-partyism, the new rules of the game have been simultaneously manipulated by governments to consolidate their support: the universalising norms of liberal democracy are thus now utilised to buttress distinctly illiberal regimes. Meanwhile, the continent faces a new challenge in the form of the renewed interest of global powers in Africa's resources, notably of oil, energy and minerals, the scramble for which may overwhelm the aims and objectives of ‘democracy assistance’.

Platform workers face problems in accessing effective social protection schemes. Furthermore, these workers are not always in a position to build up robust social protection rights even in case they can participate in the schemes. Compared to standard workers, they work in a precarious situation. The small tasks they perform, their geographical mobility and their low earnings are issues that create problems for social security systems’ ability to accommodate these workers. In this contribution, attention to the specific working conditions of platform workers is given; starting from the concept of standard work and a discussion of the way platform work deviates from that performed by standard workers (the original basis used to design traditional social protection schemes). In a second part of this paper, the various challenges that platform work create for social protection schemes are enunciated. In the third part of the contribution, the recent EU Recommendation on access to social protection is used as a yardstick to discuss what kind of answers should be given to accommodate platform workers in social protection schemes. In the final part, conclusions around three elements that are characteristic of platform work, yet not sufficiently addressed in national social protection schemes, nor in the EU Recommendation, are developed. These observations help to establish findings on the future outlook of social protection schemes, which should be inclusive and accommodative for all (new) types of work.