Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Adjustment for Stabilisation or Growth? Ghana and the Gambia |
Author: | Parfitt, Trevor W. |
Year: | 1995 |
Periodical: | Review of African Political Economy |
Volume: | 22 |
Issue: | 63 |
Period: | March |
Pages: | 55-72 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Gambia Ghana |
Subjects: | industrial development economic policy Politics and Government Economics and Trade Development and Technology |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056249508704100 |
Abstract: | Ghana and The Gambia are part of the group of African States that have been following programmes of structural adjustment (SAPs) throughout most of the 1980s and into the 1990s. They are also amongst the States that the Bretton Woods institutions have periodically cited as success stories for adjustment. This paper examines how the conditions for growth actually have been attained in Ghana and The Gambia, paying particular attention to the issue of how far adjustment policies are conducive to industrial growth. It seems clear that structural adjustment has stabilized the economies of Ghana and The Gambia, but at a level where they remain disadvantaged by reliance on traditional exports that are vulnerable to recession. In short, conditions for growth have not been attained in either country and some of the factors that led to instability in the first place (notably dependence on a narrow range of primary exports with variable prices) have been left intact. The paper concludes with a few suggestions for future research. The paper is partly drawn from interviews conducted in 1993 with officials and/or representatives from a number of government departments and official development organizations in The Gambia and Ghana. Bibliogr., note, sum. |