Book Review: Adjustment in Africa: reforms, results, and the road ahead by World Bank. Oxford University Press, New York, 1997. 284pp.
✍ Scribed by Robert Laporte
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 60 KB
- Volume
- 17
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0271-2075
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
ef®cient responses to market signalsÐwhile creating an effective social safety net that does not abandon the losers in the marketplace to destitution? The Report also examines how countries' histories and starting conditions affect the approach to transition and its speed and progress. The bottom lineÐand the Report's central conclusionÐis that despite these very different points of departure, sound policy, wherever ®rmly and consistently applied, has yielded rich bene®ts.
Second, how can countries best consolidate these initial reforms, creating institutions that can support a thriving economy? One essential institution is wellcrafted legislation and the rule of law. Another is an active ®nancial system, no longer the passive repository of state-channeled funds but an ef®cient intermediary between savers and investors. Also needed are reformed education and health care systems, capable of preserving and retooling these countries' rich reservoirs of human capital, and, perhaps most important, a rightsized government with the strength to be effective in a market economy.
The answers to these questions must be incomplete, but their broad dimensions are already taking shape. And the answers, even if preliminary, matterÐnot just for the countries concerned but for many others that are making similar, if less pervasive, reforms towards wider markets and deeper international engagements.'