Variable dimension adjustment in the Côte d'Ivoire: reasons for failure

Abstract

The Côte d'Ivoire has experienced a rapid succession of development models and policies. In the first twenty years after independence, indigenous planning experts designed and implemented large ‘agribusiness’ and then ‘integrated development’ projects. By the end of this period, the sanctions imposed by international markets had transformed these grandiose projects into financial black holes. In the 1980s pressure from international authorities imposed, successively, global economic adjustment (disinflation), sector adjustments (competitive) and the social dimensions of adjustment (anti‐poverty). However, deflation of public spending and disinflation with competitive and social objectives proved incapable of restraining financial deficits whilst simultaneously causing a deterioration of human development indicators. The 1990s confirmed the Côte d'Ivoire's leading position in development ‘technology’, in particular the national approach to programmes (demand led). Prime Minister Ouattara's medium term economic programme and ‘national approach to programmes’, adopted by the government in 1993, established the basis for a new form of planning. Finally, in 1994, the Côte d'Ivoire discovered the practical consequences of monetarism in an open economy. The devaluation on 11 January gave it access to large loans and gave hopes of further improvements in competitivity. Would this change from competitive disinflation to competitive devaluation resolve financial problems and improve the standard of living? In this article I will illustrate, against a backdrop of failure, the succession of adjustment policies, from standard adjustment (1980s) to the social dimensions (end of the 1980s). Then I will discuss the national approach to programmes (beginning of the 1990s) and finally monetary stabilisation (since January 1994).

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