[stop-imf] New Report: See <http://www.saprin.org/SAPRIN_Findings.pdf>

[Robert Weissman]

A detailed and specific critique of structural adjustment -- carried out
in multiple countries by a wide array of experts -- and focusing on a
number of different aspects of structural adjustment, has now been
published by SAPRIN.

It is available at <http://www.saprin.org/SAPRIN_Findings.pdf>

SAPRIN is the structural adjustment participatory review international
network, a global civil-society network that took its name from the
Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initiative (SAPRI), which it
launched with the World Bank and its president, Jim Wolfensohn, in 1997.

SAPRI was designed as a tripartite exercise to bring together
organizations of civil society, their governments and the World Bank in
a joint review of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) and an
exploration of new policy options. It sought to legitimizing an active
role for civil society in economic decisionmaking, as it was designed to
indicate areas in which changes in economic policies and in the
economic-policymaking process are required. The countries participating
in SAPRI were:  Bangladesh , Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Hungary, Mali,
Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The groups that participated in SAPRIN report that they are bitterly
disappointed with the World Bank's failure to participate in the process
in a good faith manner; and they view the Bank's performance in this
area as a refutation of Wolfensohn's repeated refrain that he wants to
engage in dialogue with NGOs.

Most important, however, is the substance of the matter. And for that,
see the SAPRIN report.

--
Robert Weissman