ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a gendered analysis of the structural adjustment program in Nigeria, with particular reference to the health sector. It begins with the premise that macroeconomic policies have gendered effects. The chapter examines the conceptualization of structural adjustment as a development strategy, the insertion of gender issues into adjustment policy discourse, and the framing of health-care issues within that discourse. It assesses the implementation and impact of SAPs at the household level and their different impacts on men and women. The market is the key mechanism for organizing structural change within an SAP, and individual sovereignty is an essential condition for improving the process of resource allocation and for promoting dynamic and creative economies. The chapter deals with women's empowerment under adjustment and offers two cases of women's response to the privatization of health care in Nigeria. It discusses grassroots political action as an integral part of an alternative strategy of development.
