PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

The impact on health of the structural adjustment policies has emerged as a controversial debate in international health. Some economists and public health researchers and some government and non-government commentators allege that the structural adjustment programs have had a detrimental health impact. The conclusion to be drawn from this study is that the claims that structural adjustment has had a detrimental impact on health in developing countries is baseless. Furthermore, it shows that structural adjustment failed to have positive impact on the health status or its proximal determinants. The study asserts that the previous two decades of economic and structural reforms fell short from exerting any real impact on the vast majorities of the population in developing countries. The study advances the opinion that the adjustment lending was a political interaction between the lending agencies and the national elites in the recipient countries.