Protecting the vulnerable and promoting growth

Abstract

After three decades of remarkable progress, improvements in the welfare of children and other vulnerable groups in many parts of the world began to falter in the 1980s. This study draws on UNICEF work and experience of recent years to illustrate the extent of the current crisis and point to ways to alleviate the effects caused by economic adjustment. World recession, depressed commodity prices, and the debt crisis in Latin America and Africa, compounded by drought in Africa, have led to falling per capita incomes, rising unemployment, and cuts in social expenditure. Inevitably it has been the children and women from poor families who have been hardest hit as stabilization and adjustment policies have been applied. This study reviews the effects of the economic crisis, drawing on the experience of ten countries. It explores ways in which countries can avoid these ill-effects, and can protect vulnerable groups, during economic adjustment. The book is intended for students of welfare and economic development, and officials and politicians who face the problems of adjustment.

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