Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are the policies imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on countries from the South that seek financial aid. Their intention is to ‘restructure’ a country’s economy to enable it to repay its debt and make it financially viable for the future. The programmes are supposed to be adapted to the particular needs of the countries where they operate but they all contain the key elements of a deregulated free market economic strategy:

• Privatisation
• The removal of state subsidies for example, on basic foods
• Reduction in public expenditure for example, health, education, welfare
• Devaluation of the currency - to make their exports cheaper and more competitive
• The production of goods for export
• Encouragement of foreign investment by attracting transnational companies

Of course, we all expect conditions when we borrow money from a bank and we expect the bank to decide what those conditions will be. The World Bank and IMF have decided to impose conditions based on particular economic and political views. They could equally decide on conditions that asked lenders to reduce the amount they spent on armaments or increase the amount they spend on the production of food crops for home consumption or health care.

Southern countries generally have no option but to accept these conditions because they cannot get vital credit from any other source.

In sub-Saharan Africa where over 30 countries are bound by structural adjustment programmes, average incomes have fallen by 20 per cent in a decade.

The World Bank and the IMF rarely step into the limelight yet they have a tremendous influence on the global economy in general and the South in particular.