Garth Mangum

Structural Adjustment as an Inadvertent Enemy of Human Development in Africa

African economies have experienced numerous disruptions since the 1980s, while other parts of the world have significantly prospered. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has become impoverished in absolute and real terms, and today faces the need for some form of an economic miracle. According to the harsh verdict of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, Africa is unable to point to any significant growth rate or satisfactory index of general well-being in the past two decades. To a substantial degree, these two international organizations have themselves to blame. Following Africas emergence as independent nations after the collapse of colonialism in 1960, too many African nations immersed themselves in debt, overspending on public enterprises, public employment, excessive military, and, all too often, cronyism and corruption. Their currencies collapsed, and debt repayment ceased. When these troubled nations sought assistance, the international lending agencies justifiably demanded reforms classified as structural adjustment. However, structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and stabilization policies have seldom delivered on their promises. Even worse, the available evidence suggests that they have accentu-

ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT, EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF NIGERIA

On the basis of the Nigerian experience, this article argues that the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, when misapplied, can have a devastating effect on the educational systems that are essential to human resource development. The paper considers how the objectives of structural adjustment might have been accomplished without harming education, and recommends an outcomes-based educational policy for Nigeria which could serve equally well in other developing nations. The key message of the paper is that the ongoing austerity programs have been secured at excessively high human cost, and that it is time for a policy redirection that reaffirms education as the essential tool of all development.

Human Renewal in the Revitalization of the Industrial City

Forces following World War II caused a flow of industrial jobs to the suburbs, trapping a central-city minority population unable to compete for the office jobs remaining. Service jobs primarily for the women and a welfare system unwilling to support male-headed families contributed to family breakup. A variety of programs were introduced in response, but the better they worked the worse conditions became because the successful joined the flow to the suburbs. The result is a dual economy with a modern sector staffed by commuting expatriates overlaid on a native population basically unconnected to the citys economy. Since there are already more jobs than residents in the central city, economic development is largely irrelevant to them. The challenge is to bring the residents into the heart of the citys economy, yet create an environment that will encourage the successful to stay.

Confronting the Youth Population Boom

The number of sixteen- to twenty-four-year-olds is about to boom again in America. Will there be jobs for them? The authors comprehensively analyze the prospects.

Steel on the Industrial Staircase: A Conceptual Model for Early Warning to other Industries and Nations

Perceiving all of the worlds economies as pursuing each other up an industrial staircase allows foresight into which industries in which nations are most likely to face increasing competition from those seeking a breakthrough in the race for world markets. The U.S. steel industry illustrates the challenge to intermediate product and complex assembly industries. Had the industry developments of the 1970s and 1980s been foreseen in the 1950s and 1960s, it could have avoided its two major errors: offering excessive labor costs to buy production stability and replicating its existing technology rather than pursuing available innovations. Now the U. S. electronics industry is succumbing to similar challenges at the next higher step on the staircase. It is submitted that clearer recognition of the phenomenon might provide an early warning as to which industries are next, both in the U. S. and abroad, and what comparative advantages can provide them a reasonable defense or an orderly retreat.

The Why, How, and Whence of Manpower Programs:

Short- and long-run factors have influenced the emergence of United States manpower policy. The transition from agrarian to industrial and postindustrial society has had varied effects upon employability in the labor market. Inadequate aggregate demand is a better explanation than structural unemployment as a cause for the manpower problems of the late 1950s. During the 1960s, there has been a shift in the emphasis of manpower policy from those displaced by automation, to youth, to the disadvantaged. There are many difficulties in mounting employment strategies to fight the war on poverty and in designing alternative manpower programs for these groups. Thus far, the approach has been a piecemeal attack, with new programs being originated to meet individually recognized manpower and employment problems as they arose. Current issues in creating a viable manpower policy include: inadequate resources relative to need, development of the proper mix of federal-state-local administrative jurisdictions, co-ordination of the varied programs, and determination of the appropriate degree of emphasis to be given to remedial, as opposed to preventive, programs. A major revision needed in existing manpower activities is tailoring programs to the needs of individuals rather than making people fit into existing programs. A comprehensive manpower program is needed to meet this goal. Evaluation efforts and management techniques must be improved to assure that correct policies are delineated and implemented. Given the basic goal of enhancing individual freedom, effective manpower policies can do much to help the disadvantaged to expand their opportunities and to face the problems of their complex urban society better.

Young Adults in Economic Depression: The Case for a Young Adult Jobs Creation Program

Popular indicators are not sufficient to tell us the state of the economy. The authors show that, beneath the employment data, young adults in particular have suffered in the recent recession. In fact, they lost all the hard-won gains of the late 1990s. Is it time for a job creation program?