ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the nature and objectives of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) and analyzes their economic impact on the economies of the Southern African countries. SAPs are a combination of two types of policy responses—stabilization policies which are the domain of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and structural adjustment policies which are the province of the World Bank. Structural adjustment policies are designed to address the long-term growth issues through better supply responses to market liberalization and efficient macroeconomic management. The impact assessment approach needs to be one of trying to determine what would have happened in the absence of SAPs. The deepening of the development crisis in Southern Africa, which began in the 1970s and intensified in the 1980s, presented a difficult challenge to the political leadership, policy advisers, and the development community. For the IMF programmes, conditionalities are a norm for a country intending to borrow more than 25 percent of its IMF quota.
