Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Health

doi:10.1017/9781108692137.013

Chapter 12 - Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Health

from Section 3 - Analyzing Some Reasons for Poor Health and Responsibilities to Address Them

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2021

Jeff Rudin and

David Sanders

Edited by

Solomon Benatar and

Gillian Brock

Show author details

Solomon Benatar: Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Cape Town
Gillian Brock: Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, University of Auckland

Book contents

Get access

Summary

he debt narrative is encapsulated in the conundrum of why postapartheid South Africa chose to cripple itself with debts that it could so easily have been repudiated. Nelson Mandela described the apartheid debt as “the greatest single obstacle to progress in this country.”

Type: Chapter
Information: Global Health
Ethical Challenges
, pp. 170 - 181

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108692137.013[Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Purchase

Buy Book

Buy print or eBook

References

Action for South Africa (ACTSA) (2003). Southern Africa calls for reparations for apartheid. August.

Bakan, J. (2005). The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. London, Constable.

Bassett, M., Bijlmakers, L., & Sanders, D. (2000). Experiencing structural adjustment in urban and rural households of Zimbabwe, in Turshen, M. (ed.), African Women’s Health. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, pp. 167–191.

Bassett, M. T., Bijlmakers, L. A., & Sanders, D. M. (1997). Professionalism, patient satisfaction and quality of health care: experience during Zimbabwe’s structural adjustment programme. Social Science and Medicine 45(12), 1845–1852.

Bijlmakers, L., Bassett, M., & Sanders, D. (1999). Socioeconomic stress, health and child nutritional status in Zimbabwe at a time of economic structural adjustment: a three-year longitudinal study. Research Report No. 105. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala.

Breman, A., & Shelton, C. (2001). Structural adjustment and health: a literature review of the debate, its role players and the presented empirical evidence. WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health Working Paper WG 6:6. WHO, Geneva.

Cannard, J. (2019). Cancel Eskom’s odious debt to the World Bank, August 19. Available at https://mg.co.za/article/2019–08-19–00-cancel-eskoms-odious-debt-to-the-world-bank.

Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) (2008). Final Report: Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health. Geneva: WHO.

Cornia, G., Jolly, R., & Stewart, F. (eds.) (1988). Adjustment with a Human Face: Ten Country Case Studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Costello, A., Watson, F., & Woodward, D. (1994). Human face or human facade? Adjustment and the health of mothers and children. Occasional paper. Institute of Child Health, London.

de Savigny, D., Kasale, H., Mbuya, C., & Reid, G. (2004). Fixing health systems: Ottawa. International Development Research Centre, cited in Labonté, R., Blouin, C., Chopra, M., et al. (2007). Towards Health-Equitable Globalisation: Rights, Regulation and Redistribution – Final Report of the Globalization Knowledge Network. Geneva: WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health.

De Vogli, R., & Birbeck, G. L. (2005). Potential impact of adjustment policies on vulnerability of women and children to HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Health Population and Nutrition 23(2), 105–120.

Fanon, F ([1961]1963). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.

Frank, A. G (1967). Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Frank, A. G (1969). Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution – Essays on the Development of Underdevelopment and the Immediate Enemy. New York: Monthly Review Press.

George, S. (1988). A Fate Worse than Debt: A Radical New Analysis of the Third World Debt Crisis. London: Pelican Books.

Halstead, S. B., Walsh, J. A., & Warren, K. (eds.) (1985). Good Health at Low Cost. New York: Rockefeller Foundation.

Hanlon, J. (2000). How much debt has been cancelled? Journal of International Development 12(6), 877–901.

Hanlon, J. (2004). How Northern Donors Promote Corruption. Manchester, UK: Cornerhouse Publications.

Labonté, R., Blouin, C., Chopra, M., et al. (eds.) (2007). Towards Health-Equitable Globalisation: Rights, Regulation and Redistribution – Final Report of the Globalization Knowledge Network. Geneva: WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, p. 56. Available at www.globalhealthequity.ca/electronic%20library/GKN%20Final%20Jan%208%202008.pdf.

Malala, J. (2003). Mandela: apartheid debt paralysed ANC. This Day, October 9.

Oxfam (2004). Undervaluing teachers: IMF policies squeeze Zambian education system. Press release, Global Campaign for Education, Oxford, UK, October 1.

Perkins, J. (2005). Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. London, Ebury Press.

Piot, P. (2004). Plenary address for closing ceremony, in XV International AIDS Conference: Getting Ahead of the Epidemic (Bangkok, July 16, 2004). Cited in Schrecker, T., Labonté, R., & Sanders, D. (2007). Breaking faith with Africa: the G8 and population health post-Gleneagles, Chapter 12 in Cooper, A. F., Kirton, J. J., & Schrecker, T. (eds.), Governing Global Health: Challenge, Response, Innovation. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 181–251.

Reuters (1999). G7 has failed in debt relief – Manuel. September 20.

Rudin, J. (1999). Apartheid Debt: Questions and Answers. Johannesburg: Jubilee South Africa.

Rudin, J. (2000). Odious Debt Revisited. Johannesburg: Jubilee South Africa.

Rudin, J. (2003). Forgive us this day our odious debt. Mail & Guardian, February 21.

Toussaint, E., & Comanne, D. (2000). Debt Relief: Much Ado about Nothing. Brussels: Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt.

Toussaint, E., & Millet, D. (2009). 60 Questions, 60 Answers on Debt, IMF and World Bank. Brussels, Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt, pp. 18, 34, 101–109.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2003a). Economic Development in Africa: Commercial Results and Dependence on Commodities. Geneva: UNCTAD.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2003b). Commodity Yearbook. Available at http://rO.unctad.org/infocomm.

World Health Organisation (WHO) (2006). Harmonization for Health in Africa: An Action Framework. Geneva: WHO.

Zulu, M. (2007). Multi-stakeholder consultation on “Financing Access to Basic Utilities for All.” Unpublished, Lusaka, Zambia, pp. 23–25.