112 Book Reviews
Readers who reside in countries where structural adjustment is implemented
and retrenchment is in process will find Chapter Four absorbing because it deals
extensively with the problems of the public sector and lack of evidence of
significant public enterprise reform.
The World Bank does not only study why and how sub-Sahara Africa did not
succeed but also how reforms are paying off. The part on 'pay off is of interest.
It deals with positive issues in the structural adjustment exercise. The section will
be of interest to those interested in understanding how macro-economic stability
and improved prices for exports, especially agricultural exports benefited some of
the countries concerned.
Most sub-Sahara African countries embarked on development programmes
with an intention of eradicatingpoverty. This has been very slow in Africa because
of slow economic growth, rapid population growth, and fragile resource bases.
Chapter Six clearly puts across reasons as to why a large number of people in
Africa are poor. It also discusses methods of enhancing the capabilities of the poor
and tackling poverty through increasing GDP per capita, by securing the right kind
of growth and investing in social services. Since poverty and environment are often
linked, this section will help the reader understand the interelatedness of the two
phenomena and what could be done to reduce poverty. The World Bank regards
investment in people as the right kind of growth and they defend their view against
the sub-Saharan African accusation that structural adjustment is hurting a lot of
people. The defence given that structural adjustment contributes to faster GDP per
capita growth is accounted here in a very defensive way to convince implementors
to proceed with it To a person who does not have an experience of the effects of
SAP the argument is very convincing.
This World Bank Policy Research Report is an educative thesis for scholars,
economists and other parties interested in understanding why Africa has undergone
SAP, what went wrong in the process of implementation, where the poor are,
what has been achieved and what next can be done if the exercise is to continue.
Reviewedby VioletMatimba.Lecturer, School of Social Work, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Uganda - Social Sectors A World Bank Country Study, The World Bank, Washington
D C, 1993,196 pp, ISBN: 0-8213-2713-5. Price: $11,95.
Uganda, a country once a showcase of Africa, has depreciated during the last three
decadesasaresultof its declining social indicators. Afterreadingthe whole report
one would feel total reconstruction and restructuring is required in all sectors if
restoration of functioning is to occur.
Book Reviews 113
This report from the World Bank on a demographic, health and education
survey shows high fertility among Ugandans and there is no indication of decline
as recorded in the results of 1980s. The situation seems the same as one Ugandan
pointed out in his report for the year 1993 that Ugandans have high regard for their
fertility as cultural aspects are attached to having many children. The report
revealed that Uganda is the second lowest among one hundred and twenty
countries in the contraceptive prevalence rate. A glance at the data will inform
readers that Uganda has a problem in achieving economic growth, because this
is incompatible with high population rates.
Poor health conditions are reflected by the crude death and mortality rates.
Because of the AIDS pandemic life expectancy at birth is estimated to decrease to
43 years by the year 1995. The ratio of population growth and dependency depicted
in the report is scaring. Uganda plunged into a bad health status as a result of
perpetual internal conflict and the severely declined socioeconomic status of most
of the people. It is not surprising to read that stuntedness is common because where
socioeconomic standards are low, household food intake is also low. Though
Uganda is rich in fruit and food production there is acute under-nutrition because
most protein providing foods are expensive to purchase, most energy-giving foods
are sold in the market to raise money for other purposes than food, leaving less
nutritious bananas for consumption as stable food.
According to the survey, education indicators for adults are very low and the
section on this describes educational attainment and enrolment in detail. Recommendations
in the report centre around investment in human resources, improvement
on health education and nutritional conditions if Uganda it so achieve
success. The report reveals that there is some improvement in female students
enrolment. It reveals a very interesting issue of cost sharing between government
and parents which most African countries have avoided, for fear of exerting more
financial pressures indirectly on parents.
Unlike other sub-Saharan countries Uganda is constrained in effecting efficient
social services as a result of low revenue effort, inadequate system of prioritising
government expenditure, and lack of a good living wage for government employees.
The report touches on issues that are of concern to the development of the
country as a whole as well as those issues that would have promoted economic
growth if macro-economic policies were improved. These are issues that involve
domestic income, budgeting and planning central government, logistical programmes
for health and education and health family planning services and the
wage bill.
African scholars, demographers and social scientists would be fascinated to
read the Ugandan report as it reflects and confirms some of the problems that have
been cited before as impediments to Africa's economic growth. The section on
public service is a true reflection of misappropriation of funds which most
114 Book Reviews
countries have experienced. The section on "ghost workers" who were said to be
on the payroll is fascinating and frustrating at the same as it brings out the true
picture of experiences faced not only by Uganda but other countries in sub-Saharan
Africa. These are some of the issues that makes the report interesting.
The findings on the research on social sectors give insight to the situation of
Uganda as a Third World country and at the same time poses a lot of questions as
to how many and which other countries fall within a similar situation to that of
Uganda. This book is suitable for social development planners and scholars and
could be included in their socioeconomic literature.
Reviewed by VioletMatimba, Lecturer, School of Social Work, Harare, Zimbabwe
Empowering People Building Community, Civil Associations and Legality in
Africa, Richard Sandbrook and Mohamed Halfani (eds), Centre for Urban and
Community Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, 1993,209 pp, ISBN: 0-7727-
1364-2 Price: $14,95 + GST.
This volume contains the contributions of participants to the International Conference
of Civil Associations held in Arusha in August 1991. Taken as whole, it
provides an overview of the aims, strategies and tactics of a range of NGOs in
Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa and the obstacles faced by them as they confront,
or attempt to negotiate with, the state. With over 30 papers, the editors clearly faced
problems of organisation and presentation. To a certain extent, this has been
resolved by gathering papers into sections, providing an introduction (Sandbrook)
and a conclusion (Halfani) and the insertion of brief editorial linking passages
between the sections.
Sandbrook's introduction notes that the themes of popular participation and
empowerment of people have featured centrally in a wide range of prescriptions for
political reform and economic recovery in Africa and raises the problem that these
terms have a wide range of meanings. However, as he makes it clear, the book
reflects the focus of the Conference, namely the problems involved in engendering
a wider consciousness of political, legal, social and economic rights and building
sustainable, coherent and popular organisations that can defend and extend these
rights against undemocratic states and the elites closely associated with them.
The first section of the book contains Julius Nyerere's opening address (Reflections
on Empowering), a record of some of the discussion which followed and
presentations on general themes by Halfani and Ampaw. Nyerere, whilst acknowledging
the failures of the post-colonial state, interventionist policies and the
practice of socialism, warns against taking a too confrontational stance against the
state and of the dangers of promoting sectional factionalism which could under