Negative Impact Of World Bank Structural Adjustment Program

This essay would inquire in to the impact of global health actors on Health Policies in the Republic of Ghana highlighting the World Trade Organization, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as reference points.

After Zambia gained political independence their economy was doing better. Their economy was surrounded around their primary natural resource, copper. As copper sales went up, new medical buildings and schools were built, they had a promising textile industry and things were looking up. Until an unexpected rise in the price of oil in tandem with the dropping prices of copper forced Zambia to borrow from the IMF and world banks at extremely high interest rates. Soon Zambia found itself in a mountain of unpayable debts and to repay creditors, spending was cut to education and health and other infrastructure projects. Eventually all of the progress they have made goes to waste as it can not be maintained. Foreign countries currently dictate the economic policy via structural adjustment, i.e. policies that “should” increase revenue and allow them to pay the loans off. This inevitably leads to a country that is so dependent on foreign aid because their own industries have been destroyed by foreign influences.

The documentary depicts globalization as way in which countries are interconnected around the world and affect each other through various economic, social, and political processes. The documentary particularly focuses on the economic affects of globalization, by examining the affects of economic liberalization and the internationalization of finance through organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and structural adjustment programs. Loans given by the IMF to developing countries such as Jamaica do not help them develop, but instead prevent them from advancing economically and socially. The advancements that these loans have guaranteed have not occurred, and the policies that have been imposed with the loans have negatively impacted the majority of the Jamaican population. Many local workers, especially farmers, have lost their jobs as goods are imported from other countries. The country is

WORLD BANK: governments play an important role in development, but there is no simple set of rules telling them what to do.

In Encountering Development by Arturo Escobar, Escobar critiques the Development Project, a multi pronged initiative of socioeconomic management of the Third World, specifically Latin America, Asia, and Africa, via the First World powers, in question specifically the United States. The critique entails how industrialization and modernization of the Third World could be seen as the mode through which modernization could be achieved and this was enabled by bureaucratic entities, like the World Bank, whom subjected Third World economies to a heavy handed management via the modernization process which denied autonomy for Third World self sufficiency. The Development process thus denied any legitimate conceptualization of how to properly develop economic prosperity. The rapid “consolidation of power” into the hands of the capitalist First World Elite created a paradigm through which the support of cyclical poverty ensured a need for industrialization in order to fix defunct socioeconomic issues. By creating bureaucratic agencies, like the World Bank, which provided specific subscriptor projects, like DRI, allowed for the First World entities to to create and sustain an ongoing unequal distribution of power between the Global North and the Global South.

Whilst raising money for African charities at school I developed an interest in global inequality and alternative policies that can help low-income nations escape the poverty trap. Reading ’23 Things’ by Ha-Joon Chang, I was intrigued by his view on blaming free-market policies like SAPs that exposed sub-Saharan Africa to international competition, slowing economic growth. Hence, this extended my research to the other side of the

This paper would contain a detailed overview of African Continent’s history and evolution. Social and cultural reformations and practices would be taken into consideration. It will carry a detail oriented research on the poverty and underdevelopment issues of the continent. A brief review to the history in the relevance of the topic would be included. Developmental crises would be analysed from several perspectives. The cultural and social norms and their relation to their relation to developmental crises would be evaluated. Possible solutions regarding the limitations and issues in the developmental social and cultural prosperity and well-being would be discussed. A meaningful conclusion would be evaluated on the research

If we were to lay the topic “effects of globalization” on the table, what assumptions might arise? Well, one might point out whether globalization can be considered as a positive thing or negative thing towards different cultures. The article “Case for contamination” gives insight on the author’s views and arguments towards globalization and how that intertwined with the people in Ghana.

There were many economic struggles in Ghana that put sever stress on the residents. Because of the lack of money there are a huge number of people that are unemployed and will continue to be for a very long amount of time. Those between the ages of 18 and 35 are most commonly struggling through being jobless but this makes up so much of Ghana’s population. With a scarcity of money, infrastructural struggles begin to occur which is not easy to deal with. They barely have electricity, running water, heat, etc. and this can result in many uncomfortable results.

Although Ghana has sought out financial and development support from the United States, other supportive sources from developed countries may be of an asset to developing country dealing with global

Ghana is gaining money from trading with China. They have gained $1.4 billion and 86.7 of their resources are going to China. Ghana has a lot of poverty, but also many places that are rich. Based on the ABC-Clio Solutions, China is 22.3% of the import partners. Imperialism in Ghana is different because some of the Chinese workers in Ghana are given negative attitudes and Cui Shoujun spent 3 months there investigating the workers. There are negative attitudes towards Chinese investment. In fact, views here are sharply divided. Ghanaian academics and government mostly welcome Chinese investment, believing it drives economic growth on the continent. But opponents point to negative factors such as political motivations, poor working conditions and a lack of respect for human rights, and this view is often expressed in the media. China is represented as not playing by the rules of the game and damaging Ghana’s economic

One major complaint about the World Bank is that it causes high debt in developing countries. Even though the loans are meant to help these countries, they end up causing the countries to take on debt that they must pay interest on and remain under the conditions of the institution. Another is that as part of their lending requirements; the World Bank has imposed rigorous conditions on recipient countries. These requirements are known as structural adjustment programs. These programs force countries to adopt their conditions, such as deregulation of capital markets, reformation of national companies to private corporations, and downscaling of social welfare programs. Privatization of water supplies and public pensions, and imposing fees for public hospitals and publics schools are among the debated bank reforms. In his book, 50 Years Is Enough, Kevin Danaher describes the World Bank's policies as "austerity plans that 'reform' economic policies by suffocating the poor and inviting

Most of the developing countries are mired deeply in economical obstacles, which prevent them from development significantly. In order to overcome those embarrassments world’s society struggles to find the efficient solution for poor countries’ economies. Historically, developed countries undertook policy of giving aid to their colonies, afterwards by the end of The Second World War the United States and United Nations embarked the global sponsorship to the developing countries and countries of the Third World due to humanitarian considerations. Since then many other countries have joined in the effort to provide financial aid to lesser developed or poverty ridden countries. But none of those countries that received an aid had experienced a prosperity phase and rapid economic growth.

Over the last 50 years, the world has struggled to maintain an economic balance and stability, while flourishing countries try to maintain a steady income to support its people and relations with other countries. Therefore, when a continent like Africa fails to maintain a stable government and economy, super powers such as America decide to intervene with its relations. Africa has great potential to become another pillar of the world’s economic structure with its mass amounts of uncultivated land. Unfortunately, corruption and irresponsible governments hinder that progress. Foreign aid while helpful should be limited to a yearly amount because it allows the government to repudiate responsibility and gives room for corruption; it creates a

The World Bank is composed of five organizations run by member countries. It provides ‘technical and financial assistance’ to developing countries. In connection with this, the bank has the objectives of eradicating ‘extreme poverty’ by 2030. However, it has been pointed out that, the bank’s commitment towards environmental protection is not practical. This comment relates to the case at hand, as the bank provided funds to the construction the lines transmitting power to neighbouring countries; although, the project has been criticised for its human rights and environmental concerns. This is an action which has been criticised from the view point of its ‘safeguard policy’ whereby the bank should focus on infrastructure development and not in profit making given the government of Ethiopia plans to export half of the power generated to Kenya. Moreover, the agenda of the government of Ethiopia in exporting electric power, where only 26.56% of the population in the country have access to electric power, should not have been supported by the World Bank. In addition to this the bank’s goal of eradicating extreme poverty is questionable where it is funding a project in which nearly half a million people could be exposed to starvation.