Adjustment with a Human Face

Abstract

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 18 th World Conference of the Society for International Development in Rome. It was an early presentation of the need for an alternative approach. Two years later, Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Frances Stewart and Richard Jolly, all at the time working for UNICEF, published their detailed analysis and country data in two volumes, also entitled Adjustment with A Human Face. Partly in response, the Bretton Woods Institutions made some changes to their policies, though far less than were necessary.

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