Hellbringers of neo-liberalism: Structural adjustment programmes and the health retrenchment transition in Zimbabwe
Date
1997
Authors
Scriver, John Howard
Major Professor
Advisor
Mazur, Robert
Committee Member
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Abstract
The fundamental problem investigated by this study is Africa's development/health relationship under economic structural adjustment programmes. More specifically, the central challenge becomes demonstrating the impacts of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) upon the health care services and health of poor and wlnerable peoples in a manner that helps to distinguish such impacts from those of other health-impacting factors (e.g., colonial "inheritance," pre-SAP era conditions, destabilization, droughts, etc.). It is proposed that this challenge be addressed by a theoretical modeling and longitudinal analysis of Zimbabwe's ESAP/health relationship on urban populations from 1985-1993. Due to the likely differential impacts of SAPs between the poor and the non-poor, data analysis must be disaggregated according to socioeconomic strata. Furthermore, in an effort to distinguish the impact of SAPs from other factors in shaping health outcomes, a longitudinal analysis covering the time before and after the implementation of SAPs is needed. Additionally, in order to elucidate the relationship between SAPs and health, the macro-to-micro-level linkages (global-interveningcontextual-behavioral) between SAPs and health at the household and individual levels need to be articulated and tested. Only in this way can the SAP-health relationship be understood and relevant macro- and micro-level, action-oriented policy recommendations be made. It is hoped that illustrating the macro-micro linkages within the SAP/ health relationship, together with analysis of longitudinal, socioeconomically disaggregated data, will help to distinguish between SAP and non-SAP effects upon health, as well as assist health practitioners in devising action-oriented policy at the macro and micro levels
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