The impact of structural adjustment policies on women's and children's health in Tanzania

Abstract

Since 1981, in an attempt to deal withTanzania's present social and economic crisis which dates back to the late 1970s, the government has adopted a variety of policy measures including The National Economic Survival Plan (NESP), Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), Economic Recovery Programme (ERP) I (1986) and II (1989); the Economic and Social Action Plan (ESAP) and Priority Social Action Plan (PSAP) (1989). The principal objective of these adjustment measures has been to attain macroeconomic balance by bringing national expenditure into line with national income to reduce inflation and to increase exports. Other objectives have been to maintain egalitarian income distribution and provision of basic social services to the majority of the population. In order to realise these objectives, the government has been controlling credit and has removed subsidies on certain food items and agricultural inputs; introduced a system of progressive devaluation; liberalised trade; and has been trying to reduce government expenditure by introducing cost sharing measures in the education and health sector. The erosion of real incomes and increased poverty have had a devastating effect on women and children: rural women have yet heavier workloads as males migrate to the urban areas to look for work; there is increased maternal mortality; chronic malnutrition and poverty are rendering the implementation of HIV/AIDS intervention strategies difficult. But most of all, the danger lies in the lack of care for future generations.

Colonisation, the New World Order, and the eradication of traditional food habits in East Africa: historical perspective on the nutrition transition

“…The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) pledged to improve tariffs, export subsidies and domestic agricultural support for struggling African countries 4,91 . However, once again, these measures led to restructuring of the national economy which increased export exploitation by consolidating power among a few multinational corporations 4,92 . As such, trade policy reforms have enabled greater control of corporations over households through the direct and indirect control of employment opportunities, earnings, and daily expenditures related to subsistence living (i.e.…”

“…Demands on women living in the rural setting have also increased recently, particularly with the continued migration of rural men seeking employment to urban centres 147 . Rural women in East Africa have been forced to work longer hours to meet cash-crop demands 92 . The absence of women from the family unit has increasingly displaced traditional foods which are timeconsuming to prepare compared with easily prepared import grains and high-calorie/low-nutrient fast foods and street foods 32,148 .…”

“…As such, trade policy reforms have enabled greater control of corporations over households through the direct and indirect control of employment opportunities, earnings, and daily expenditures related to subsistence living (i.e. food, clothing, shelter) [92][93][94] . Delocalisation of food production, food distribution and food marketing has redistributed power over food systems from the local economy to a few multinational corporations 34,95 .…”

Political-economic Transitions and the Changing Context of Maternal Health Access in Tanzania: Evidence from DHS Data

“…Early empirical studies highlighted a detrimental impact of SAP on maternal and reproductive health in Tanzania (Richey 2004, Lugala 1995. These early studies, however, mainly focused on the consequences of introduction of individual co-pay also known as "user fees" (e.g., Litvack andBodart 1993, Huber 1993) as opposed to long term changes in health access.…”

IMF Lending and Poverty in Developing Countries

“… Austere fiscal policies have in most cases targeted the health and education sectors 6 , which are of an utmost importance for the poor ones (Weissman, 1990;Lugalla, 1995;Chossudovsky, 2003).  Extensive privatization schemes, agreed upon between impotent and corrupted local governments, and powerful multinationals with a blatantly higher negotiating power, are claimed to have led to an unprecedented raise of unemployment (Weissman, 1990;Adedeji, 1999;Banchiringah, 2006), large-scale forceful population displacements (Hilson and Potter, 2005) and denial of access to basic goods like water and electricity for vast parts of the domestic populations (Ismi, 2004;Saprin, 2001).…”