This article indicates how the IMF has imposed ‘conditionalities’ in sub-Saharan Africa as integral elements of structural adjustment programmes (SAP) that affect not only the lives of all the inhabitants, but also the nature and landscapes of the nations concerned – their very geographical composition. Although the specifics of SAPs differ, four basic elements are always present: currency devaluation, the removal/reduction of the State from the workings of the economy, the elimination of subsidies in an attempt to reduce expenditures, and trade liberalization. Such prerequisites are intended to lead to the ‘adjustment’ of malfunctioning economies. However, at the same time, the countries themselves are altered in certain fundamental ways. These involve the organization of the State, the character of the environment, the supply of food, the meaning of development, urban-rural interaction, and distinctly different future prospects for the several areas that comprise the Third World. The article summarizes the literature on SAPs as they apply to the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and gives an indication of the outcome of IMF conditions and adjustments. Notes, ref.
