Growth and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa: Macroeconomic adjustment and beyond

We begin this paper by taking a look back at the adjustment, growth and poverty debate. Our analysis suggests that while the poor do not bear the disproportionae costs of adjustment policies, it is also the case that policy reforms have largely failed to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. We therefore explore the microeconomic, structural and institutional constraints to growth and poverty reduction. The three areas that we concentrate on in terms of removing the structural and fundamentally microeconomic constraints that impede growth and poverty alleviation are human resource development, vulnerability and risk management, and fiscal management through decentralisation.