Au-delà des relations internationales classiques, le processus de mondialisation mobilise quantité d'acteurs économiques, sociaux et culturels, individuels et collectifs, qui agissent dans l'espace mondial. Nous étudions ensemble, Africains, Latino-américains et Européens, comment il en dérive de nouvelles relations internationales. Ce cours prend sa source dans les approches sociologique et historique françaises des relations internationales, comme celles promues en Afrique et en Amérique latine. Bertrand Badie, Marie-Françoise Durand, Delphine Allès, Atta El Battahani, Carlos Milani, Gaïdz Minassian, Papa Samba Ndiaye, Karen Smith, Folashadé Soule-Kohndou.
L'ajustement structurel en Afrique - Atta El Battahani
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En provenance du cours de Sciences Po
Afrique et mondialisation, regards croisés
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Avec Bertrand Badie, Papa Samba Ndiaye, Atta El Battahani et Marie-Françoise Durand. | Les principaux indicateurs économiques et sociaux montrent un monde inégal et instable.
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Bertrand BadieProfessor
Marie-Françoise DurandProfessor
Ladies and gentlemen, good day
and thanks to Professor Badie and his colleagues
for availing me this opportunity
to participate in this Massive Open Online Course.
I would like to talk about the impact
of structural adjustment policies programs
known as SAPs on social welfare in Africa.
As you know, an underlined assumption
in the Bretton Woods system is that
all countries passing through difficulties
can ask for economic assistance at times of needs.
Countries with sound market based economic institutions
passing through accidental setbacks
can ask for help without going through adjustment.
Unlike countries whose economies are based
on state led institutions passing through hardships
and deep seated economic problems
can ask for help only after
undertaking structural adjustment policies
to allow multilateral financial economic institutions
to assist them with the guidance
of the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank.
African countries belong to the second category,
whose economies are based on state-led institutions
and as such require assistance
for them, to require assistance
they must undertake structural adjustment policies
meaning that their economy
they had to be structurally adjusted
in order to allow financial and economic
international institutions to come their aid
the mediation and guidance
of the IMF or the World Bank.
But SAPs or structural adjustment policies
came to Africa through different phases
and in different formats
One can distinguish three phases:
the pre-SAP period beginning
during the 50s up to 60s and 70s,
then a transition to the 70s and 80s
and then a third phase from 1990s onwards.
During the first phase,
when African countries obtained their independence,
most of them had successfully managed somehow
to manage a sound economy,
thanks to a booming demand
for export of raw material from Africa
and also thanks to favourable treatment
from Keynesian welfare states government
at that time in West Africa.
In the second phase,
beginning in the 70s and 80s,
things were different for many African countries.
The Keynesian welfare state
in Europe came to an end,
paving the way for
market led neoliberal governments:
Margaret Thatcher in Britain,
Ronald Reagan in the United States,
Helmut Kohl in Germany.
And their economic difficulties
were compounded by an added factor,
precipitated by the high oil prices
as the result of the Arab-Israeli war in 1973.
Non-oil African producing countries
had met severe difficulties
in balancing their accounts
leading to deficits
in their internal and external accounts
and economic hardships.
And for them to get assistance
according to Bretton Woods
system as I mentioned earlier,
they had to undertake severe
structural changes in their economy,
by cutting public expenditure,
by privatizing public assets,
by removing subsidies from
economic basic social services
like education, like health
and this has met with difficulties
in some countries when they have tried that.
For example there were food riots in Egypt during Sadate
and unlike before,
these policies were not met by support
because as I mentioned,
the market led neoliberal governments
in the western countries raised the slogan
of “trade not aid” meaning that
if they would like to receive aid
they have to accept the conditionalities
set by the IMF and the World Bank.
The transition ended in 1990s
with the collapse of the soviet bloc at that time
and also with the neoliberal ascendancy
again worldwide this time combined with globalisation.
And the main thesis here is that
globalisation intertwining
with the structural adjustment policies
had reinforced the negative impact of SAPs.
Most of the African countries,
almost about 44 countries have accepted
structural adjustment policies from 1990 onwards
and the so called socialist state
that in the past were
taking sides of the Soviet Union;
most of them shifted sides from a state
economy to a market economy like Angola.
Even the African National Congress
have dropped their socialist agenda
and accepted market led reforms in South Africa
during the post-apartheid.
So all in all most of African countries
have adopted that some they did it gradually,
others they did it through terrible choc,
for example, in my own country (Sudan),
the new government in 1989,
they have adopted
full scale structural adjustment policies,
laying the thousands of civil servants
and workers out of office,
freezing wages and this had serious impact
on the livelihood of the people.
To give one example,
the richest 20% of the population
had their share in the national income
increasing from 48% to 76%.
The 30% -the population representing the middle class-
had their share of the national income
declining from 30% to 17%.
And the rest, the 50% of the population, the poor,
had their share of the national income
dropping from 22%
in 1970s to 7% in late 1990s.
So one can imagine the negative impact
on the social welfare of the population in that country.
So the general impact
of SAPs on the welfare in Africa varied,
in some countries there were indications
that to some extent it worked,
for example in Tanzania,
rural people increased their income
much more than urban people.
In West Africa, also there were
indication of economic stabilization
and economy starting to pick up.
In Angola also there were indicators
that it was working but not in all countries.
So in a way there is variation
so to speak in terms of the impact
but generally there are 5 indicators
which leads one to say that
the minuses are more than the pluses
when it comes to giving a general evaluation
of a structural adjustment program.
For example, one :
the livelihood of the workers
and rural producers have been affected badly:
wages have been frozen
and freeing prices does not go
to include also freeing the prices of labour,
that’s why for example real wages fall
by almost 70% in Tanzania as the result of that.
Another also big minus
for the structural adjustment in Africa
is its impact on women,
for many observers,
they saw that it’s gender biased
in the sense that women were unemployed,
laid off and actually women also bore
most responsibility for the livelihood the household.
Now for example many women
are working in the informal sector,
street vendors etc..
and we all remember for example
the incident in Tunisia,
the case of Mohamed Bouazizi for example
a street vendor whose mistreatment
by the local authorities led to ignite
the so-called vence of Arab spring all over.
Another minus that also might be quoted that
African governments abdicated their responsibilities
towards basic social services
like education, like health.
Now these are looked as commodities.
In the past, governments had the responsibility
to provide them as social services,
now they are commodities in the market.
It is no longer possible for the poor family
to send their kids to schools
or for example to get medication
as less they have an income for that.
The Fourth element also showing
the big minus of the intertwining of globalisation
with structural adjustment policies
is that it encourages consumerism
and also the importation of luxury goods
by the well to do families
and by rich families in the urban centers.
Another major minus
is that structural adjustment policies
were based or predicated
on authoritarian governments,
the IMF and the World Bank
seemed comfortable to negotiate these conditions
with rulers who are not elected,
and it is a big question why for example
these institutions pursue economic liberalization
while they are not supporting political liberalization,
they both go together.
So by way of concluding,
one may recall the proposal by
the ECA (economic commission on Africa) in 1989
calling for adeling for fruitful consultation
between the financial international institutions,
between governments both in Africa
and outside Africa, and between academics,
between civil society, activists also
to try to consider and revisit
these structural adjustment policies.
It is not useful to discuss it as a dogma
if the realities have shown otherwise,
I think that it is high time that we revisit
and re-adjust these adjustment policies.
Thank you.
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