BOOK REVIEWS 117result from the Programme, without consideration of prior trends and thegeneral economic administration of the country. The author cites popularderogatory perceptions of ESAP and appears to accept them uncritically.Sometimes the blame placed on ESAP seems extreme: "Rape within marriagehas reportedly increased largely because men can no longer affordprostitutes" (p. 42).The author does not always make clear the origin and status of thedata he cites. "It is thought that the number of working children hasescalated to over 50 000 ..." (p. 39). "There are estimated to be between10 000 and 12 000 children living on the streets of Zimbabwe today" (p. 41).Who has these thoughts and estimates, and on what basis? My informationis that the number of children living on the streets is perhaps a tenth ofthe figure given. Even when 1 have no reason to doubt the author'sstatements, I should like more information. I should like, for example, toknow more about the information from which the author concludes thatvarious forms of child abuse are increasing. Statements about familydisintegration need more careful analysis than the author gives them,both on its nature and on its causes.Some of the tables could be more helpful. What are we to concludefrom Table 1, which shows that in 1976, 11.5% of Whites and 13,1% ofBlacks were in primary school? Table 2 gives absolute figures for patternsof disease between Whites and Blacks, and no percentages.It is useful to have the issues concerning children expressed conciselyin one short booklet. But it provides little in the way of new insight or newinformation.University of Zimbabwe M. F. C. BOURDILLONThe Economic Structural Adjustment Programme: The Case of Zimbabwe,1991-1995 By A. S. Mlambo. Harare, University of Zimbabwe Publications,1997, 105 pp, ISBN 0-908307-72-1, $75.Dr. Mlambo's book has explored factors leading to the inception, andimpact of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) inZimbabwe. The study contains an immense amount of material obviouslybased on months of earnest investigation.An analysis of a typical International Monetary Fund/World Bank 0MF/WB) reform package is presented in the opening chapter. The chapterevaluates the effectiveness of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).Indeed all the evidence points to the fact that SAPs are to blame for thesituations in which developing countries find themselves. The chaptercontains an interesting debate on whom to blame for the failure of SAPs[pg. 19]. IMF and WB officials argue that"... they are merely advisors ...118 BOOK REVIEWSand were not directly involved in how governments distributed the burdensof adjustment". Payer (1987) dismisses this as a lie [see pg. 19]. Dashwood(1996) disputed the fact that IMF/WB reform programmes inherently causehardships for the poor majority [pg. ix, para 4 and 5].The next two chapters of the book present the background to theintroduction of ESAP in Zimbabwe. The wisdom of producing Chapters 2and 3 [pg. 29-54] is open to question. This is not to deny that these twochapters contain invaluable information. The information contained is notnew at all. Dr. Mlambo could have referred the reader to the alreadyexisting literature on the history of Zimbabwe. A probit analysis on thedecision to participate in SAPs could improve the presentation in Chapter3. Also missing is a well-motivated discussion on the nature and extent ofthe macroeconomic and sectoral crisis that bedevilled the Zimbabweaneconomy over the 1980-90 period (see Elbadawi, Ghura and Uwujaren,1992).Chapter 4 of the book is entitled "Scheming for the Poor: Educationand Health, 1980-1990". This chapter gives a detailed discussion of the"policy issues" in the health and education sectors before and afterindependence (first ten years). Indeed the discussion is appealing, and allthe evidence points to a notable improvement in the provision of socialservices to the Zimbabwean majority. However, this was not without its"teething" problems. This is made clear in the two final sections of thechapter: "Educational Reform: An Analysis" [pg 67-71] and "Scheming forthe Poor: Health Reform, 1980-1990" [pg. 72-78].Chapter 5 of the book has aroused strong feelings in many quarters.Entitled "The ESAP Counter-Revolution: Scheming Against the Poor: Healthand Education Under ESAP, 1990-1995", this chapter acid tests theeffectiveness of ESAP in Zimbabwe's health and education sectors. Theoutcome cannot be over emphasized; "... the reform programme affectednegatively the welfare of the Zimbabwean majority" and "most of the gainsmade in the first decade of independence with respect to the provision of,and the majority's access to, education and health services" were reversed.This is made clear in paragraph 2 on page 87, which states:. . . AIDS could no longer be considered the greatest threat to publichealth . . . the biggest health crisis is the inevitable decline in thestandard of living as a result of ESAP.Dr. Mlambo could have improved his method of analysis byincorporating economy wide models (see Davies etal, 1994; Chitiga, 1996).These models are more illustrative than the "historical-analysis-of-facts"approach adopted in this book.The book winds up with a conclusion. The conclusion puts a newcomplexion on reform packages. In brief, the reform packages shouldintegrate poverty related policies in order for them to develop a humanface. The author, however, does not give any practical suggestions aboutBOOK REVIEWS 119the redistribution e.g. targeting and how to identify the poor. The potentialcosts of the suggested policy are not discussed. This could have beenmore helpful to policy makers in Zimbabwe. For policy purposes, thestudy has achieved little success, and is already out of date. As Economists,we should be trying to look at the possible solutions to our problemsrather than spend our resources on analysing the "by-gones". What is theway forward?Dr. Mlambo's book is especially suitable for the upcoming scholarswho are really keen on knowing the origins of ESAP in Zimbabwe.ReferencesE. L. BACHA, (1987), "IMF conditionality: Conceptual problems and policyalternatives", World Development, No. 15, (12).R. DAVIES, J. RATTSO, AND R. TORVIK, (1994), "The macroeconomics ofZimbabwe in the 1980s: A CGE-model analysis", Journal of AfricanEconomies No. 3.H. DASHWOOD, (1996), "The relevance of class to the evolution of Zimbabwe'sdevelopment strategy, 1980-1991", Journal of Southern African Studies,xxii, (i), pg. 27-48.DE JANVRY AND SADOULET (1996), Quantitative Development Policy Analysis(Baltimore Inc).R. DORNBUSCH, (1982), "What have we learned from stabilization?", WorldDevelopment, 10 (September).I. A. ELBADAWI, D. GHURA AND G. UWUJAREN, (1992), "Why structural adjustmenthas not succeeded in Sub-Saharan Africa", World Bank WPS 1000(October).C. PAYER, (1987), "The IMF and India", in J. J. Havnevik (ed), 77je IMF andWB in Africa: Conditionality, Impact and Alternatives (Uppsala,Scandinavian Institute of African Studies).F. TARP, (1993), Stabilization and Structural Adjustment (Routledge, London).L. TAYLOR, (1993), The Rocky Road to Reform: Income Distribution, Politicsand Adjustment in the Developing World (Cambridge, MIT Press).University of Zimbabwe A. M. CHIDAKWAThe Practice of Smallholder Irrigation: Case Studies from Zimbabwe E.Manzungu and P. van der Zaag (eds.). Harare, University of ZimbabwePublications, 1996, 235 pp, ISBN 0-908307-51-9, Z$60.This edited volume is a multi-disciplinary study of smallholder irrigationin Zimbabwe. Eight case studies make up the book. The case studies focuson interaction between technical and social aspects of smallholderirrigation, standardisation in schemes managed by government,