Rural Productivity, Malnutrition and Structural Adjustment

  • Richard Longhurst
Chapter

Abstract

The current financial recession in developing countries is deepening the problems of the poor. In Africa, a gradual decline in agricultural productivity and the provision of services to rural areas, together with recurring droughts, have accentuated impoverishment (Ghai and Radwan, 1983) and led particularly to high levels of child malnutrition. Demands by the IMF for stabilisation and by the World Bank for structural adjustment are putting pressure on governments to re-establish the balance between resource availability and use. But the price of this is deferment of basic needs policies (which would establish access by the poorest to food, water, health and education) and lower priority for increasing the productivity of vulnerable groups (UNICEF, 1985). In practice there have been reductions in, and even elimination of, social services, food subsidies and other government expenditure that benefits the poor. Stabilisation and adjustment processes have therefore had a disproportionate effect on the poor. Children, who have least power and fewest resources, have suffered most (Jolly and Cornea, 1984).

Keywords

Agricultural Policy Food Price Household Food Security Rural Poverty Child Nutrition 
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© Richard Longhurst 1987

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  • Richard Longhurst

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