Food Policy 25 (2000) 623–627www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol

Book review

Our Continent, our Future: African Perspectives on Structural AdjustmentThandika Mkandawire and Charles C. Soludo; Codesria, Dakar, IDRC, Ottawa, andAfrica World Press, Trenton NJ and Asmara, 1999, pp. 176+xiv, ISBN 2-86978-074-5.

This volume is a synthesis of 30 case studies which have been carried out mainlyby African researchers, on the effects of structural adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa.A companion volume of the case studies will follow. The authors call for an Africanperspective on structural adjustment and for an African policy solution rather thanone which is effectively imposed by the Bretton Woods Institutions.

The authors argue that it is important to start with initial conditions. They thereforebegin with a review of Africa’s economic performance since the early 1960s. Theyargue that Africa’s post independence performance was in many ways relativelygood in the early years and that for most countries the deterioration set in with the oilcrisis of 1973–4 and the droughts of the same period. They point to three importantdistinguishing characteristics of African economies: first their extreme vulnerabilityto changes in world trade conditions; secondly their vulnerability to climaticextremes, and thirdly, the ‘prevalence of civil strife and wars’. However, they alsonote that domestic policies towards agriculture, and the particular form of importsubstitution industrialisation which most countries adopted, left these economies evenmore vulnerable to disturbances in the world economy.

The authors then go on to look at the diagnoses of Africa’s subsequent poor per-formance and the prescriptions which have been offered. They quite rightly complainabout the narrowness of diagnosis and prescription, largely based on neoclassicaleconomic theory. However, even the attempts at the new political economy whichrecognises the importance of institutions and interest groups in economic decision-making, are also largely derided. The excessive amount of blame which has landedon the shoulders of state bureaucracies, has left civil servants demoralised, andunlikely to generate an efficient state. The authors wryly note the contradictionbetween the early exclusion of domestic public servants from structural adjustmentpolicymaking and the later assertion by the international institutions that local statesshould ‘own’ these policies in which they had no part in framing.

The third part of the book overviews the experiences of adjustment for thosecountries that adopted structural adjustment packages. Most of this chapter coversby now well trodden ground. All the inconsistencies of the World Bank’s approachto assessing its adjustment policies are exposed and it is clear that there is littleevidence to suggest that structural adjustment has been a success, even where satis-factory measures of success can be identified. If adjustment policies are working

624 Book review / Food Policy 25 (2000) 623–627

then it might be expected that in the short run, GDP growth declines and the balanceof payments worsens. However, what tends to happen is that in the short-run aidpredicated on the adoption of adjustment policies induces increased growth and animproved balance of payments, thus suggesting the rapid success of policies. Thisinstant success is also helped by some of the policies—for example, formerlysmuggled cash crops are exported legally as producer prices are increased. In thelonger run these effects fade and growth slows down. As the authors note, WorldBank ‘success stories’ later disappear from the picture and are replaced by other‘successes’ until they too fade away. For the authors, it is the failure to sustainrecovery that requires some explanation.

The authors propose a set of policies which break out of the ‘narrow fundamentals’of the neoclassical framework by combining both state intervention and market econ-omy. They argue for an investment-based strategy based on competitive markets.They argue for an efficient state, directing development strategy, raising educationalattainment, and channelling credit to agriculture to make a ‘green revolution’ andto industry, where the state ‘picks winners’ in export markets. They oppose export-led strategies which rely on traditional export crops (in spite of calls for a pro-ductivity increasing ‘green revolution’) because this leaves the economies overlyvulnerable to world market changes. This element of ‘export pessimism’ pervadesthe volume, although declining terms of trade and fluctuating prices have alwaysbeen a feature of the markets even during the relatively successful period of Africa’spost-independence development.

This volume is a useful and highly readable account of Africa’s post-independencedevelopment and adjustment experience. However, there are several problems withthe approach taken by the authors. First, it is difficult to find much in the analysisof the adjustment experience that is new or particularly ‘African’. The discourse isthat of orthodox ‘western’ economics, while the sources used (with the exception ofthose to be published in the companion volume) are predominantly non-African.Similarly, the discussion of what needs to be done in the areas of human capitaldevelopment, fiscal capacity, civil service reform, debt reduction, and governance,for example, would not find itself much at odds with a lot of current World Bankthinking. Secondly, the problem is therefore not of what needs to be done but ofhow to do it. While it is true that an efficient state with strong capacity is morelikely to generate an export-led industrialisation than a weak state, the discussionbegs the question of why strong states with a high level of technological capacityare missing from the continent. This requires a more historical approach than is takenhere, and a more multidisciplinary one, looking at ‘initial conditions’ much furtherback than the point taken by the authors. Finally, not all African countries had thesame post-independence ‘initial conditions’, not only in terms of GDP, but also asregards the range of institutions bequeathed to them by the colonial regimes.Although many African countries face the same kinds of problems, it might be moreuseful to look at some of the differences in their specific histories and performancerather than seek some continent-wide explanation and prescription.

Peter Lawrence

625Book review / Food Policy 25 (2000) 623–627

Department of Economics, Keele University, Keele,Newcastle ST5 5BG, UK

E-mail address:p.r.lawrence@keele.ac.uk

PII: S0306-9192(99)00084-6

Food Security. Factors that Could Affect Progress Toward Meeting World FoodSummit Goalsq

Report of Congressional Requesters; United States General Accounting Office,Washington, D.C., pp. 101, GAO/NSIAD-99-15, March 1999

The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) produced this report at therequest of two United States senators and one congressman. It reviews the outcomesof the 1996 World Food Summit and comments on some of the key factors thatcould affect progress toward achieving the summit’s goal ‘to achieve food securityfor all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediateview to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level(estimated at more then 800 million) no later than 2015’, and the implementationof summit’s action plan that includes seven broadly stated commitments, 27 objec-tives and 181 specific actions (FAO, 1997). The report is based on analysis andsynthesis of information ‘from a wide variety of primary and secondary sources’.

This is a worrying report, which has a generally negative tone. It is especiallyconcerning as it comes from a country that should have a major role to play if thesummit’s action plan is to be implemented and its goal achieved. Among the factorsthat may affect the realisation of the summit’s goal, the report focuses on tradereforms, conflicts, agricultural production, and safety net programmes and food aid.The need to develop a food security information system, to monitor and evaluateimplementation of the summit’s action plan, and to co-ordinate international co-operation, are stressed.

The report has a number of useful appendices which contain data on recent trends.On the current status of global food security, the report finds that the methodemployed by FAO to estimate the prevalence of chronic undernourishment at thecountry level to be ‘subject to a number of weaknesses’. FAO estimates are basedon a minimum level of energy requirements that allows for only light physicalactivity (1,720 to 1,960 calories a day). A study by the Economics Research Serviceof the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1997, based on a higher standard of 2,000to 2,200 calories a day, estimates the number of people who could not meet their

q One copy of the report can be obtained free of charge. Additional copies are $2 each. Orders bymail: U.S. General Accounting Office, P.O. Box 37050, Washington, D.C. 20013 or on INTERNET:info@www.gao.gov