The World Bank's Fundamental Misconception in Africa

In an earlier article in this Journal , ‘Structural Adjustment in Africa: a failing grade so far’, Vol. 32, No. 4, December 1994, pp. 679–92, I scrutinised the World Bank's major attempt to demonstrate the efficacy of its set of programmes known as ‘structural adjustment’. By relying solely on data selected and arranged in Adjustment in Africa: reforms, results, and the road ahead (New York, 1994), and using the categories and ratings of reform performance in that policy research report (hereinafter referred to as AIA), I showed that they not only failed to support its conclusions but actually bolstered the contrary thesis: namely, that implementation of structural adjustment most often causes poorer performance.