Structural Adjustment, the Environment and Sustainable Development

"Structural Adjustment and the Environment", published by Earthscan in 1992, was the first book to examine the effects of 'structural adjustment programs': economic development policies imposed by the World Bank and IMF on recipient countries as part of their lending requirements. To widespread critical acclaim, the book exposed the damaging environmental and social effects of structural adjustment, and called for a thorough revision of the then-current development policy.
This new report is a major step forward in the study of SAPs. It covers new research and analysis from leading experts and institutes, focusing on nine new in-depth case studies. The book looks at the complex links between macroeconomic policies, social impacts and environmental outcomes. and takes a forward-looking perspective, examining the alternatives to SAPs. It not only updates the information of the first book, but includes the detailed results of further analysis into the effects of SAPs from a wide range of academics and policy-makers, and represents an important addition to the methodology and results of policy analysis in developing countries.

David Reed is director, Macroeconomics Program Office, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-International) in Washington DC, US; author of Economic Change, Governance and Natural Resource Wealth (2001); and editor of Structural Adjustment, the Environment and Sustainable Development (1996).