Adjustment with a Human Face

The 1980s began with many developing countries facing severe debt problems. Stabilization and structural adjustment policies were introduced by the IMF and the World Bank, as the conditions for obtaining loans. By 1985 some parts of the United Nations — notably the Economic Commission for Africa, the ILO and UNICEF — were drawing attention to the severe human costs which these policies involved, in terms of unemployment, child malnutrition and setbacks in education and health. The following piece was presented by Richard Jolly, then Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF on leave of absence from IDS, as the Barbara Ward memorial lecture at the 18th World Conference of the Society for International Development in…