Internal Capacity and Overload in Guinea and Niger

In: The journal of modern African studies: a quarterly survey of politics, economics & related topics in contemporary Africa, Band 29, Heft 2, S. 275-300

Abstract

Many African states have been operating under tight structural-adjustment restrictions for close to ten years. The policies of the International Monetary Fund make heavy demands on public-sector capability and political leadership, particularly as regards pricing and trade practices, banking and finance, economic monitoring and data analysis, macro and sectoral planning, as well as policy formulation, initiation, and implementation. The aim is to create a very strong private sector operating under market conditions, and an effective, though not necessarily large, public sector committed to rational, strategic economic growth. For many African régimes there also will be increasing motivation towards both decentralisation and pluralism. In short, the post-structural adjustment state, rather than withering away, needs to be selectively strengthened and to have an increasingly sophisticated capacity to manage development activities at both the national and local levels.1