Journal of Social Development in Africa (1992), 7,1,99-109 
Book Reviews 
Adjustment with a Human Face: Protecting the Vulnerable and Promoting Growth, 
Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Richard Jolly and Francis Stewart (eds), a UNICEF study, 
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1987 (319pp, £27,50, ISBN 0 19 828609 0 pbk). 
The book is in two parts, with contributors who have had experience and exposure in a wide 
range of socioeconomic settings. The book looks at the social and economic needs of 
children in 10 countries, studying child welfare in the context of a deteriorating economic 
situation. The situation of infants and other vulnerable groups is studied against a 
background of world depression, depressed commodity prices, the debt crisis of Africa and 
Latin America, and drought in Africa. All these factors tend to lower per capita incomes 
and employment opportunities and increase cuts in social expenditure. The study wishes to 
show how stabilisation and adjustment policies can be successful economic strategies while 
still protecting vulnerable groups, ie adjustment with a human face. 
Part One of the book is concerned with issues arising out of the economic decline of the 
first half of the 198O's, and the effects of subsequent policy measures on child welfare. 
Evidence of the effects of this recession on child welfare are detailed in tables and analytical 
models. These diagrams enable the reader to absorb vast amounts of statistical data easily, 
in a systematic manner, allowing for comparisons. Basic household needs such as fuel and 
food are emphasised so that readers can understand the struggle that vulnerable groups have 
to undergo to survive in a situation where policy issues are beyond their control. The 
conclusion of Part One is a comprehensive summary of how child welfare has been 
negatively affected by growing economic imbalances, in particular declining household 
incomes. Part One deals thoroughly with care issues and vulnerable children, as it covers 
nutritional, health and social opportunities for such infants. 
Part Two of Adjustment with a Human Face is an overview of an alternative approach 
to the failed policies illustrated in Part One. The cruicial consideration in the alternative 
approach is to combine adjustment with the protection of vulnerable groups and the 
restoration of economic growth. Policy considerations are also linked to the forces of supply 
and demand so that the prefered options are seen in the context of both the vulnerable group 
and economic restoration. 
The book illustrates clearly how policy makers should view the needs of local small 
farmers, while at the same time addressing global factors that threaten vulnerable groups. 
For this reason students of welfare, economics and development, and those professionals 
who adopt a systems approach to the analysis of socioeconomic trends affecting vulnerable 
groups, are fully provided for. The book is a detailed, illustrated analysis of the economic 
trends in the countries studied. Very few readers could read it for shere enjoyment, unless 
they were well read in welfare 
economics, development and olherdisciplinesinwhich statistics are appreciated. Adjustment 
with a Human Face is a valuable resource and reference book, which would suit
100 Book Reviews 
postgraduate readers and professionals with a commitment to understanding how economic 
adjustment policies could be successful while protecting vulnerable groups, such as 
children. 
Reviewed by Abel Zimunya, World Vision International, Harare, Zimbabwe. 
Agricultural Extension for Women Farmers in Africa, Katrine A Saito and Jean C 
Weidemaim, World Bank, Washington DC, 1990 (57pp, US$6,95, ISBN 0 8213 1657 5). 
This is a short publication, and is quite condensed but the few pictures and generous spread 
of case studies make the book interesting and readable. The cover is probably too light 
coloured to withstand the tough usage for which the book is destined. 
The book is product of almost two years of research into the problems facing women 
fanners, and various ways of developing agricultural extension services to women, in 
Africa. The work was financed by the UNDP Regional Programme for Africa and is part 
of ongoing research into raising the productivity of women farmers in Africa. 
The book is jointly authored by Katrine Saito and Jean Weidemann, senior economist 
and consultant respectively in the Women in Development division of the World Bank's 
Population and Human Resources Department. The authors acknowledge contributions to 
the publication by many experts within and outside the World Bank. The book has four 
chapters, Chapter 1 addresses the question of why women need help, and focuses on the role 
of women in agriculture in Africa, and the particular constraints they face in access to 
resources and information. Chapter 2 examines the information needed to modify the 
extension system to better reach women farmers, and the information needed to modify the 
focus of research to address women's activities and constraints on these, and to monitor and 
evaluate programmes. 
Ways of collecting such data are suggested. Chapter 3 deals with the transmission of 
the extension message to women. In this chapter the writers examine the role of extension 
agents and the importance of gender, the use of home economists and subject matter 
specialists, the use of contact farmers, and the use of groups. The final chapter examines 
the formulation of the message to be delivered, and the linkages between extension and 
agricultural research and technology. 
One strength of the book is that it views women as an integral part of a complex 
socioeconomic setting, and avoids defining extension for women only in terms of' women's' 
factors, or shortfalls in women-related information. While acknowledging the need to 
review such factors and provide women-specific information, the authors have looked at 
extension as an open ended strategy that takes note of different situations and explores new 
directions for involving women in their own learning not as objects of extension but as 
participants. 
Another strength of the book is its guidelines for action. The literature on women in 
agriculture rarely goes beyond just expressing views on the situation of women. The