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Chapter 8 Effects of Structural Adjustment Policies on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights (excerpts) . . . II. Links Between Structural Adjustment and the Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights . . . 58. In many countries currently engulfed by war and internal conXict, adjustmentinduced social unrest provided the initial impetus for ethnic, tribal, religious fundamentalist and nationalist frenzy which eventually led to armed conXict. This reassessment of the nature of policy reforms is particularly striking because adjustment programmes are meant, according to their designers, to shift resources towards the poor. But while increases in food prices and cutbacks in government expenditures and employment have taken place as planned, overall economic growth—which was expected to counteract these developments—has not. The negative consequences of “orthodox” adjustment policies are evident in the following areas. 1. Increased unemployment 59. During the years 1978–1995, of the 43 countries on which the ILO has published statistics, 31 countries, or 72 percent, suffered a rise in unemployment during the years of IMF funding. Similarly, the Inter-American Development Bank reports that half of the 20 Latin American countries for which it has ofWcial data experienced rising unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time these countries received considerable and ongoing IMF lending. The increase in the rate of unemployment is not conWned to low-performing adjustment countries alone. The growth in countries that Report submitted by the Independent Expert, Mr. Fantu Cheru, to the Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/1999/50. are touted by the IMF and the World Bank as “model adjustment countries” with high GNP growth, such as Chile, Uganda and Ghana, has largely been “jobless growth.” 60. The World Employment Report 1998–99 says that unemployment in Latin America increased between 1991 and 1996, reaching 7.4 percent in 1997. These Wgures probably underestimate the magnitude of the problem. In Asia, the Wnancial crisis was responsible for 10 million people in the region being unemployed overnight. In Indonesia alone, unemployment in 1998 is estimated to reach between 9 and 12 percent of the labour force, compared with about 4 percent in 1996. The situation in East Asia, Latin America and the Russian Federation is likely to get worse before it gets better since many emerging markets in the three regions are caught in a global pullback by investors, which could push unemployment and underemployment up sharply. 2. Dramatic increase in the poverty rate 61. Although accurate statistics are hard to come by, the UNDP Human Development Report and reports from the United Nations regional economic commissions provide startling information on both the persistence of poverty in many developing countries despite adherence to structural adjustment programmes for well over a decade. Among the 4.4 billion people who live in developing countries, three Wfths have no access to basic sanitation; almost one third are without safe drinking water; one quarter lack adequate housing; one Wfth live beyond the reach of modern health services; one Wfth of the children do not get as far as grade Wve in school and one Wfth are undernourished. 62. Rural poverty, a dominant feature of life in all regions of the world, affects the lives of close to 1 billion people. While urban poverty is also a growing phenomenon, the rural poor still account for over 80 percent of the total number of poor people in more than 110 developing countries. The proportion of the rural population whose income and consumption fall below nationally deWned poverty lines is estimated at 31 percent in Asia (46 percent if China and India are excluded), 60 percent in sub-Saharan Africa, 61 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 26 percent in the Near East and North Africa. In the 42 least developed countries, as much as 69 percent of the total rural population lives in poverty. In the two regions with the highest incidence of income poverty—sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia—poverty is increasing in both absolute and real terms, according to the Human Development Report, 1997, and the majority of countries in these regions have been under IMF/World Bank surveillance. While those segments of society that are fully engaged in export activities—the primary focus of adjustment programmes—have beneWted enormously and have consequently consolidated their economic power, the vast majority of the population have seen their living standards fall drastically. 3. Fall in real wages 63. Poverty is further accentuated by the downward pressure on wages and by the dramatic loss of purchasing...

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