What has been the impact of World Bank upon development in the south - Essay Example

?What has been the impact of World Bank upon development in the south? Table of Contents Introduction 4 External Debt and its Impact on Economic Growth 4 World Bank and its Initiative towards Poverty Reduction 5 The concept of North-South Divide 7 Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) of World Bank 7 Reasons for development of SAPs 8 Ideological Perspectives 9 Cleansing 9 Flawed Approach 10 Summary 11 Negative Impacts of the World Bank 11 Overview 11 SAPs- Cause of Poverty 12 Failure of SAPs in the Labour-Rich Countries 13 Failure of SAPs in Countries Rich in Land Resources 14 Negatives Impacts of SAPs 15 Malfunctions 15 Corruption 16 Questionable allegiance 16 Failure of the Domestic Government 16 Other Circumstantial reasons 17 Case Study: Ghana 17 Summary 18 References 19 Introduction External Debt and its Impact on Economic Growth Can the economic growth of the country be ascertained through external borrowing? Or it becomes just another burden for the future generation? International debts are debts owned by the countries to the non-residents. According to the neo-classical economic theory, the financially weak countries should borrow money abroad to finance their investments and requirement. According to CIA (2009), United States has got the highest level of outstanding external debt, which is approximately $13,450 million. United Kingdom being the second and there are few other countries too. So it can be understood that neither the developing nor the developed countries are immune to the finance deficit problems. This context can be better explained through the dual-gap model, which highlights the aspect of motivation for introducing debt in growth model. This model states that there are two gaps, mainly foreign exchange gaps and saving gaps. These two factors might be scarce to support the growth of the developing countries (Daud, and Podivinsky, 2011, p. 2-4). High levels of debt could also adversely affect the economic growth of any country. It can be also related to the debt-overhang theory. According to debt-overhang theory, the expected return of external debt is inadequate compared to the contractual value of debt. The heavy burden of debt on the developing countries drains their investments too and returns get taxed away. Apart from this high debt also negatively affect the investment rates and growth of the country because of huge cash flow and has effects of moral hazards. However, on the opposite side, if external debt is considered at the level of foreign borrowings, then it could have a positive impact on growth and investment of the country. The Laffer curve represents the relation between the investment and the face value of the debt. The expected amount for repayment falls when the level of outstanding debt increases beyond the specified mark. So according to the Laffer curve, the expected payment would reduce with the increase in the face value of debt (Zawalinska, 2004, p. 5-6). Since the past decades, policymakers and also academicians have taken keen interest in studying, and investigating theories to develop a link between debt and the economic growth of the global economy, but we would consider a few empirical studies to understand the concepts in this study. Abdelmawla-Mohammed (2005) supports the fact that external debt has a negative effect on the economic growth and development. Studies in about 61 developing countries have been conducted and results reveal that high debt can also create negative effects on the physical capital and productivity growth of the country. This study aims at focusing on the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) of the World Bank and the impact of such strategies on the south. We would follow a well-defined framework to evaluate each dimension of external debt, its effects on economic growth, and effect of SAPs on the economic condition of the developing countries. Also a critical analysis of the negative aspect of SAP of World Bank would be done in this study. World Bank and its Initiative towards Poverty Reduction Richard Peet in his "Unholy Trinity” has clearly mentioned the supremacy of International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Bank. He has also skilfully explained how these bodies imposed sets of neoliberal policies on the countries round the world. However, in the conclusion part, the author has revealed his hope for changes in the economic scenario in future. In 1990, World Bank developed their World Development Report, in which poverty was the major area of concern and the bank developed several provisions for providing basic social services to the needy for increasing the labour productivity. This World Bank report also suggested that rapid progress in poverty reduction has been achieved through two methods, firstly through promotion of the abundant assets of the poor and needy. Secondly, providing basic social services to the needy, such as health care, nutrition, medical advice and free primary education was also another initiative by the World Bank (Cammack, 2007, p. 2-4). The framework of the World Development Report of 1994 was analytical in nature. It stated guidelines for development through infrastructure. Further guidelines were developed for competition and commercial management. In 1995, the World Bank policy paper stated strategies and priorities for education, which was directly related to the productive usage of labour. It was also argued that education was critical for economic growth and reduction of poverty from the world. Structure of the industries and the economies was the first priority and the labour market was the second priority of education. The strategy that World Bank used to reduce poverty mainly focused on the productive usage of labour force. World Bank invested in educating people because education would increase the productivity of the poor people. Some of the other measures that World Bank took along with IMF in the recent years were focused on the poor countries which were heavily indebted. Major donor countries such as US, UK, Germany, Japan, etc helped the World Bank for providing loans to the poor countries, so that they can come out of their debt. World Bank conducted a comprehensive poverty analysis for poverty reduction. Goals for developing an effective strategy paper on poverty reduction were developed by the World Bank. Firstly it focuses on the progress of the poor countries. Secondly, it should be capable enough to understand different dimensions of poverty. Thirdly, the development of the strategic paper on poverty reduction should be formulated keeping in mind the long-term objectives. Lastly, the strategies should be country-driven (Ismi, 2004, p. 3-4). The purpose of discussing the issues of poverty and provisions that World Bank created for the poor nations was to understand the attitude of the World Bank towards poverty reduction. This means that whether poverty reduction was something serious for World Bank or some sort of show which it continued for years, so as to transform the society. Peet has suggested that the commitment of the World Bank in case of poverty reduction was half-hearted and that they targeted the poor unsentimentally. The concept of North-South Divide The North-South divide was a phase used to describe the income inequalities in the countries, which was also a cause of poverty. However, in the recent time, these terms are replaced by UN paradigm and the Bretton Woods paradigms. According to the view point of the Bretton Woods paradigm, the gaps between the rich and the poor is in the process of reduction, whereas, according to the UN paradigm, the difference is growing wider. These two theories are the two opposites among the other theories on world poverty. Both the Bretton Woods paradigm and UN paradigm has suggested that due to globalisation the vision of north-south concept of poverty assessment has been upset. Despite this common interpretation these two approaches are still different. Bretton Woods supports globalisation and UN paradigm considers globalisation as a multiplier for inequalities. So Bretton Woods support market liberalization, while UN paradigm focuses sustainability and social equity (Therien, 1999, p. 2-3) The concept of north-south divide was included in the study to explain the fact that poverty is a social construct. Since the past 20 years o so, the north-south divide stands as the analytical framework to explain the concepts of global poverty. The traditional north-south divide included only the developing countries in their area of discussion and analysis. The determinants were mainly the external factors such as economic environment of the country or dominance of the developed countries. It was a bipolar point of view between rich and poor. The new approaches such as Bretton Woods and UN paradigm were much realistic, though there are many differences between them. Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) of World Bank Structural Adjustment Programs were the policies implemented by the World Bank along with IMF for the developing countries. These policies were basically formulated for the developing countries that opted for new loans from the World Bank or IMF, or for obtaining rebates in interest rates on their existing loans. In this part of the study, a detailed analysis of the SAPs of World Bank has been done to view these policies from every dimension. Development is a much broader term. It can be related to the political freedom, economic development or equal opportunities. In this study we would deal with economic development. The stable growth in the standard of living that leads to consumption, education, environmental protection or health can be regarded as economic development. Evans suggests that economic growth begins within the country and economic development initiates from the outside, in form of SAPs. In the year 1999, Work Bank transformed the SAPs into Poverty reduction Strategy papers (PRSP). These poverty reduction strategy papers replaced the old policy framework. The new framework was prepared by the governments who received the loans. They prepared it through a participatory process which included the civil society, World Bank and IMF. The thought behind initiating this step was to enable different countries to come up with their own poverty reduction programs so that they cannot blame the World Bank or IMF (McGregor, 2005, p. 170). Reasons for development of SAPs The SAPs were developed in 1980. It was then floated as a part of the International Financial Institutions (IFI's) assistance for the poor and indebted countries. Many countries in the global market were unable to repay the dollar-dominated credit or finances. The countries which were involved in import-substitution industrialisation faced problems because they had invested the dollar-dominated loans in their business. They could not earn their debt amount because the sudden rise in the dollar prices had also increased their debt. These countries turned to IFI for some solution. In the initial level neither the World Bank nor IMF were prepared enough to develop any solution for such situation. These repayment issues were treated as common balance of payment problems. So IMF started offering financial assistance in such cases, but with certain conditions. The initial focus was on short-term lending and the conditions were also short-term according to the nature of the loan given. The relationship between the lender and the debtor remained intact due to the fresh inflow of funds. For the attainment of sustainable improvement in the balance of payments of the debtors, the World Bank and IMF introduced several conditions for bringing about significant changes in production. These arrangements made by the regulating body are described as the structural adjustments. These structural adjustment policies have come up from the Bretton Woods paradigm. It actually originated due to several economic disasters in 1970s, such as debt crisis and oil crisis. In the year 2002, the SAPs underwent revision and Poverty reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) was introduced. Components of SAPs Structural Adjustment Programs consist of five elements. They are described here. Firstly, it was the policy of the IFIs, that they wanted their debtors to liberalize the tariffs. Secondly, they also wanted the liberalization the goods market. Thirdly, the debtors were also asked to liberalize the factor markets. Fourthly, the demand for higher domestic tax was raised for improving the fiscal position of the debtors. Fifthly, the strictness and sincerity of the government was also demanded. The last two principles were aimed at improving the ability of the country to own their international debts. Ideological Perspectives In the year 1991, John Williamson addressed the principles "in the air", which was termed as Washington Consensus. This was also regarded as the touchstone for the policy development of SAPs. It was considered in relation to the creative entrepreneurialism, which is also seen as a source of misallocation and inefficiency of the available resources. There are two opposing approach regarding the SAPs in relation to the Washington Consensus (Rodrik, 1996, p. 9-11). They are explained below: Cleansing The reforms were introduced by the World Bank for improving the economic health of the countries because healthier economies are bound to produce positive economic performances. So it can be said that organisations like World Bank or IMF were trying to do their job by dealing with the crisis in a strict manner. The principles of Washington Consensus and SAP were considered to be sound. However, poor results were seen due to poor implementation. According to one perspective, cleansing process was necessary, as it did generate some short-term pain, but in the long-run the initiative was rightly taken. For example: Latin America's ability to withstand the financial crisis in the year 2008-2009 was due to the structural adjustment reform programs of the World Bank and IMF. Even in Chile poverty reduction was successful due to SAPs (Birdsall, De la Torre, and Valencia, 2010, p. 1) According to IFIs, the reforms were mainly aimed at restoring the growth of the country and balancing the economies. They were not mainly targeted to eradicate poverty, but to deal with the economic problems of the country and the world as a whole. The ISI strategies were focused on deficits and for the protection of certain groups, which ultimately proved to be a short-sighted strategy. The supporters of SAPs agree to the fact that SAP expected that inequality in society is necessary in order to achieve macroeconomic gains and efficiency. World Bank attributed poverty as a behavioural issue rather than the structural problems (Veltmeyer, 1993, p. 2080-2083). Flawed Approach The second approach is somewhat opposite to the cleansing approach because it states that the driving reforms were not the area of concern for the World Bank or IMF, but they were just maintaining the dominance of the local elites and the developed countries through the establishment of an ideological position. The solutions that were implemented by the World Bank were flawed and damaged the economies of the world. The Washington Consensus also remained silent in this case and incorporated a one size fits all approach, so it was not capable enough to understand the importance of knowledge, institution or innovation (Payer, 1974, p. 244). The debt crisis represented a counterrevolution in Latin America. The criteria for loan were based on political and philosophical preferences and there was no fixed technical basis for differentiation. Some argued that the SAPs were not changed based on the dependence of Latin America's volatility on financial markets. Rodirk (1996) asserted that the efforts of Latin America to achieve macroeconomic stability were understated by the wholesale adaptation of the microeconomic reforms. This happened because of the industrial and trade policies were changed in the name of developing anti-inflationary measures, as most the economist supported speedy recovery of economic health of the country (IDRC, 1991, p. 1-2). Summary This study is segregated into two parts. The first part consists of the Introduction and the second part would describe the negative impact of the Worlds Bank, especially the Structural Adjustment programs. The first part of the study includes the background study in this context. This means that the economic scenario before World Bank’s initiative to introduce SAPs has been discussed which includes the concept of external debt and its effects, the approach of the World Bank towards poverty and poverty eradication, the concept of north-south divided and advent of SAPs in this scenario. Structural Adjustment programs has been introduced and defined in this part to give an idea to the readers regarding then theme of the study. The reasons for developing SAPs are also included so that the readers can see a complete picture; along with that the components involved in the SAPs of World Bank are also included to describe the SAP of the World Bank. Negative Impacts of the World Bank Overview In this part of the study, we will analyse the negative impact of the World Bank and its policies on the different countries in the world and their economies. This would also include the negative impact of SAPs floated by the World Bank and IMF for offering loan facilities to the developing and the underdeveloped countries. It has been seen since the past decades that the third world countries and their governments are being crippled by several policies of the World Bank. The World Bank along with its subsidiaries have maintained a monopoly situation in the global market and controlled the economies in an effective manner (Bacha, and Feinberg, 1986, p. 340-341). The policies introduced by the World Bank did more harm to the poor countries that good. The Bank has always promoted itself as a friend, philosopher and guide for the third world countries, but the real case has been different. It has compelled these countries to become so much depended on their loans that the authority and control of these countries has gone to the developed countries and the bank. They rushed to socialism in the third world countries resulting in the collapse of the economy as in case of Africa. In 1986, confidential report of the bank, little or no evidence was found that the lending initiative of the bank has caused any change towards more reliance on the markets. The World Bank has received its new US funding for this year. It was about $1 billion for International development Association. With the help of this the poor countries would be able to receive loans at zero interest rates for 50 years. Yet the bank does not make these resources available to the third world countries, which are in desperate need of these resources. It is running like a profit making factory, whose aim is to meet the quantitative production goals. The mission of the World Bank is to lend money to the developing nations, so that they can develop faster, but due to corruption within the system, the mission could never be accomplished (Ismi, 2004, p. 5). SAPs- Cause of Poverty Debt is considered to be an efficient tool. It helps in ensuring access to the raw materials and infrastructure at cheapest possible price. Many developing or under developed countries shrink their exports to a limited range of products because of deficiency in cash and Northern Protectionism. Many Developing Countries are in debt and poverty due to the policies of the World Bank and the IMF. The programs designed by the World Bank and IMF has been criticized for many years for they resulted in poverty in these third world countries, because of the increasing level of dependency on the developed countries (IMF, 2012). Ideologies such as neo-liberalism was infused and institutions such as Washington Consensus and SAPs further injured the third world countries with the burden of heavy debt along with the set of conditions imposed by the World Bank. The investment recipe of the World Bank and the IMF were focused on the economic structures, such as downsizing the bureaucracy of the government, privatisation of the health and education services, etc. Chossudovsky (1997), in his book The Globalisation of Poverty has mentioned that SAP of World Bank did not improvise the framework but enabled international bureaucracy to supervise the economies. Failure of SAPs in the Labour-Rich Countries The countries which have rich labour resources obviously have lots of opportunities for potential adjustments in trade in both the urban and the rural sector. SAPs supported the labour intensive production in the industrial sectors. The land and the capital intensive sector should shrink and those capital, land and labour should be utilised for labour intensive production. There would be obstacles in such cases as the owners of land would be unwilling to switch their assets and risk their capital. In this case if the owners do not agree to shift their assets to labour-intensive production, then a limit would be imposed as to till which level the adjustment can be done. SAPs would not be able to control them politically if these groups of owner opt out from their policy of liberalization. In other words there was a struggle going on between the small agricultural holding and labour-intensive industry and the large land holdings (The World Bank, 2011). SAPs failed to include two positive sector based interventions that promoted adjustments. There were two policies which were related to reduction of break-up rates for the labour intensive sectors. The recommendation was to increase the job security of the labour in the labour-intensive sectors, which was not the case in the traditional SAP. In the same fashion, the owners of the small holding or small businesses also required similar long term security. This could have been done by extending the lease period of the tenants. The two final policies could be utilised to match the microeconomic factors of production in the labour-intensive sector. The IFIs must prevent the opponents from getting politically stronger. If these policies are enacted then they would result in slowing down of adjustment and SAPs' effectiveness. The first two factors which affect the rate of break-ups in the scares factor-intensive sector are as follows: Firstly, They defend the large land owners by opposing the land reforms and policies. Secondly, they strengthen the unions in the industrial sectors which are capital intensive in nature, by providing them job security. The third and the fourth policies are related to the matching issues of capital and land intensive sectors. The opponents of SAPs can easily ensure that polices formulated under SAPs favoured the large land owners over the small land owners. It was also observed that the credit facilities were available for the capital-intensive industries. Failure of SAPs in Countries Rich in Land Resources The standard requirements for economic and political success were absent in most of the debtor countries. So it can be said that the scarce factor of production were labour and capital. The industrial sector was uncompetitive and underdeveloped. Agricultural was segregated by trade policies. Only the large landowners supported free trade. So establishing effective support for trade adjustment would have been really difficult, as only limited amount of labour would support free trade and even not continuously over a period of time. The political advantages remained with the protectionists. The only way that was left for motivating others to support free trade was to convince the labour and capital to become mobile across the different sectors, so that they can take part in gains from more export of agricultural goods generated from labour-intensive industry. The group of people who opposed the adjustments were mainly from the urban areas. The political resistance that was seen in case of labour abandoned countries were very different. Moreover, in the previous case, the small land holders opposed the adjustments. So in those cases the land reforms had already been implemented. In this case the IFIs were concerned about the six policies which the opponents of adjustments might have implemented to strengthen their resistance to SAP. Firstly, the land reforms could be investigated by protectionists. Secondly, the industry break-up rates could be reduced. Thirdly, these policies would be extended to small agricultural holdings or to the industries. The last three policies would include the strategies to enhance the ability of the country to increase the labour and capital and find a match in the industrial sector. Other than this, it would also include easier credit facilities to small agricultural holdings, employment in the urban areas, etc. Negatives Impacts of SAPs Malfunctions The negative effects of SAPs that have been assessed are as follows: a) High interest rates on heavy burden of loan, b) The profits that is generated from the manufacturing and production within the country gets allocated to other international countries, so it does not get the opportunity to be recycled within the country, c) The money that remain within the country is transferred somehow by paying the loan principles or interests, d) The high rate of interest and the requirement of the domestic government to balance their national budget are also making the situation worse, e) The attempts that were made after the debt crisis of 1980, to recover from the situation, led to further indebtedness, and f) Finally the constant cycle of repaying heavy interest under the SAP framework of the World Bank will never allow the countries to recover or catch a breath. Another undesired impact is mentioned by David Held. According to him, the raw materials and other commodities were exported at higher prices that the domestic markets could offer when the measures for protection have been abolished. Those goods are transferred outside the country for processing them further and then the finished goods gets imported at much higher prices (Barnett, Held, and Henderson, 2005, p. 31-34) According to the United Nations; Human Development Report of 1996, the growth that had occurred were mainly capital intensive, but did not generate any job opportunities for the people. The growth improved the position of the wealthy people in the countries, but it did not change the situation of the poor in any way. The democratic condition has become worse due to the growing discrepancies and the government could not take any actions due to the restrictions stated by SAPs. Further, increasing level of poverty could not be handled because of SAPs effect on distribution of income among the countries. The tax reforms designed were reducing the revenue generated from tax, further cutting down the funds for the public welfare system in the countries. In most of the case it was seen that the reforms were designed to benefit a small specific class of people thus further adding fuel to income inequalities (Weil, 2008, p. 51). Corruption The negative effects of corrupt practices on misallocation of useful resource or growth were very much visible and its effect on the business environment was significant, but measuring such damage was a difficult task. Both the World Bank and IMF conducted research and several studies to analyze the root cause behind such occurrences. They found that: the awareness of corrupt practices can also check the growth by complicating the business processes and they might negatively affect the people’s desire to begin any new business or project. Similarly, the foreign investors also might not be willing to invest in the countries where the reliability or the quality of the government is in question. Though corruption is not quantifiable, but the effect of corruption can be measured in term of loses (Mauro, 1998, p. 4-7). Questionable allegiance The World Bank and IMF attracted the investors to focus more on the capital fertility of the countries. This creates a conflict between the interest of the countries and the investors. According to Joseph Stiglitz, the World Bank was interested in getting the repayment of the loans that they lend to the third world countries and providing bankruptcy procedure to them so that they had to start everything afresh. The bank was interested in milking out money quickly from the countries and then letting them suffer their fates. The second point of allegiance regarding the World Bank and IMF in related to the undemocratic governance. Even though it represents 186 countries, but the power lies in the hands of only few developed countries. For example, the voting right of UK weighs more than 43 countries of Africa (World Bank, 1994, p. 25-26). Failure of the Domestic Government The sovereignty of the countries was disturbed because of the adjustments that were imposed by the World Bank and IMF. The government of the countries could not take decisions that were demanded by the citizens of that country. Money generation stopped as the power shifted from the government of the country to the IMF and the World Bank. The monetary policies did not help in controlling exchange rates, interest rates or unemployment. The government of the countries were unable to react to such situations or take actions. Other Circumstantial reasons Major events like the cold war, global recession, civil wars, etc affected the economic condition of different countries. The global petroleum crisis in the year 1970 resulted in the increasing interest rates and debt crisis. This forced the countries to seek help from the World Bank and IMF. Furthermore, the external debt of many countries increased and managing the economy became more complex. The commodity prices decreased and this led to debt crisis. The African countries have faced many conflicts which made further impossible for the government to manage economic deficiencies. Case Study: Ghana In this section the effect of World Bank’s SAPs would be discussed by studying the cases of Ghana. There are many other victims of SAP, but Ghana is selected among the developing and under developed countries in the world. Ghana would help to provide good examples of SAP performance. In the year 1980, Ghana was considered to be the most successful case by the IFIs. In the year 1980, Ghana faced problems of balance of payment. The chief products that they exported were cocoa, which was becoming cheaper in the international markets, and the cost of imports was increasing. The economic development policy of the country was mainly based on the policy of ISI, and the government of the country was also involved in international borrowings. The stabilization programs started in the year 1983 with the support of Jerry Rawlings and his government. They cut down their budget to introduce liberalization. Domestic cocoa was liberalized with the direction of the IFIs and the farmers who grew cocoa got the return on production. Cocoa was basically a land intensive product. It required large land holdings to grow cocoa. SAP was supposed to help the country regain its stature, but in turn the large land holdings decreased and small lands increased in number. The small land owners started doing good business, but this overvalued the rate of Ghana’s currency. IFIs in order to stop this overvaluation ended the subsidies on the road construction, fertilizers or other policies. The small farmers suffered badly. Summary The SAPs have failed because they have always overlooked the microeconomic factors of risk in the adjustment. The failure of SAPs is very well understood in case of Ghana. In Ghana the macroeconomic reforms designed to save the economies of the countries were not backed by specific measures for removal of the constraints. Apart from the case of Ghana, there are many other countries which suffered from different aspects of SAPs and World Bank’s strategies to revive the countries condition by leading them to insolvency and bankruptcy. In some countries the process of implantation was faulty, in other places corruption was the major problem, but in all the places SAPs wrongly stated regulation led to increasing the external debt of the countries. References Bacha, E. L., and Feinberg, R. E., 1986. The World Bank and Structural Adjustment in Latin America. CGD World Development [e-journal] 14(3) Available through: Pergamon Press Ltd. [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Barnett, A., Held, D., and Henderson, C., 2005. Debating Globalization. Cambridge: Polity. Birdsall, N., De la Torre, A. and Valencia, F., 2010. The Washington Consensus: Assessing a Damaged Brand. CGD Working Paper [e-journal] 213 Available through: Washington, D.C.: Center for Global Development [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Cammack, P., 2007. What the World Bank Means by Poverty Reduction, and Why It Matters. New Political Economy [e-journal] 9(2) Available through: Routledge [Accessed 20 August 2012]. Daud, S. N. M., and Podivinsky, J. M., 2011. Debt–Growth Nexus: A Spatial Econometrics Approach for Developing Countries. World Transition Economy Research [e-journal] Available through: Springer-Verlag [Accessed 20 August 2012]. IDRC, 1991. The Lost Decade of Debt Crisis. [pdf] Available through: International Development Research Centre [Accessed 21 August 2012]. IMF, 2012. Debt Relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. [Online] Available at: < www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/hipc.htm> [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Ismi, A., 2004. Framework. [pdf] Available through: World Development Report < http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ECAEXT/Resources/publications/Making-Transition-Work-for-Everyone/chapter1.pdf > [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Ismi, A., 2004. Impoverishing a Continent: The World Bank and the IMF in Africa. [pdf] Available through: International Development Research Centre < http://www.halifaxinitiative.org/updir/ImpoverishingAContinent.pdf> [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Mauro, P., 1998. The Effects of Corruption on Growth, Investment, and Government Expenditure. Washington D. C.: International Monetary Fund Publication. McGregor, S., 2005. Structural Adjustment Programmes and Human Well-Being. International Journal of Consumer Studies [e-journal] 29(3) Available through: Blackwell Publishing Ltd [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Payer, C., 1974. The Debt Trap: International Monetary Fund and the Third World. New York: Monthly Review Press. Rodrik, D., 1996. Understanding Economic Policy Reform. Journal of Economic Literature [e-journal] 34(1) Available through: Jstor [Accessed 21 August 2012]. The World Bank, 2011. World Bank Development Approaches and Initiatives. [Online] Available at: < http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/CSO/0,,contentMDK:20092185~menuPK:220422~pagePK:220503~piPK:220476~theSitePK:228717,00.html> [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Therien, J. P., 1999. Beyond the North South Divide: The Two Tales of World Poverty. New Political Economy [e-journal] 20(4) Available through: Jstor [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Veltmeyer, H., 1993. Liberalisation and Structural Adjustment in Latin America: In Search of an Alternative. Economic and Political Weekly [e-journal] 22(39) Available through: Economic and Political Weekly [Accessed 21 August 2012]. Weil N. D., 2008. Economic Growth. Boston: Addison Wesley. World Bank, 1994. Adjustment in Africa: reforms, results, and the road ahead, Volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zawalinska, K., 2004. What Has Been An Economic Impact Of Structural Adjustment Programs On Households In Transition Countries? Institutions and Development [e-journal] Available through: Development Studies at the University of Cambridge [Accessed 20 August 2012]. Read More