The exact implications of implementing structural adjustment in the social sector in Africa have been hotly disputed and have polarized researchers. Using an empirically-grounded longitudinal study of urban and rural households in Zimbabwe, this report examines the consequences of market-based economic reforms. It focuses on observed changes in the household economy in urban and rural Zimbabwe. The study offers extensive documentation and analysis of shifts in the health status and behavior of the people, as well as changes in health outcomes, especially as they relate to nutritional status and child mortality. The authors make the case for policy reforms that could safeguard the health and well-being of people at a time of continuing economic decline.

This study represents a first systematic effort to document Zimbabwe "s new land uses during the years of economic crisis, the role of the state in promoting them, the differentiation associated with them, not only between black and white farmers, but also among them, and the implications of all these for the political economy of the Zimbabwean land question. The fact that some of the new land uses avoid redistribution of clearly under-utilised large scale commercial farms suggests that the Zimbabwean land question will remain a live political issue for a long time.

Most attempts to study the informal sector have tended to emphasize uniformity of experiences. Where an effort has been made to develop a more nuanced understanding, the assumption has always been that people move from lower to higher level activities that coincide with increased opportunities for accumulation. This report challenges both notions. Drawing on the experiences of women informal sector traders in Harare, Zimbabwe, and using a longitudinal study approach, the authors document differentiation within the sector amidst generalized decline in working and living conditions. Far from being a site of accumulation, the authors show that the informal sector during the era of adjustment is a site of bare survival in which people work ever longer hours for ever-diminishing incomes on which many competing claims are made within and outside the household.

"The Niger delta region of Nigeria which is at the heart of the country's oil industry, has a long history of struggles for self-determination dating back to the early years of the 20[superscript th] century. In the 1980s and 1990s, these struggles, unfolding as they did within the context of military authoritarianism and structural adjustment, took the form of widespread agitation for greater control by local communities of the revenues accruing to the Nigerian state from exploration and extraction of oil." "This study attempts to capture the transformations in ethnic minority identity politics in the oil-producing areas of the Niger delta. In doing this, attention is simultaneously drawn to the factors informing the shift from peaceful agitation to violent protest as well as the dynamic of decay and renewal in the various ethnic minority movements that are active in the delta. It is suggested that part of the solution to the crisis in the delta will involve not only a thorough-going restructuring of the Nigerian state but also the re-orientation of the mode of operation of the giant oil multinationals in order to make them both more sensitive and accountable to the local communities."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This study investigates the gender implications of agricultural sector reform in Kenya. The author focuses on smallholder tea production with the aim of pinpointing the factors that influence the adoption of tea among male and female farmers, assessing female farmers perceptions of the changes in living standards over the research period, and suggesting appropriate policy reforms to ensure that women 's interests are taken into account in the design of agricultural reforms.

This report summarizes the results of the fourth and final round of interviews carried out among informal sector women traders in Harare, Zimbabwe as part of a longitudinal study of their conditions of work and livelihood in the context of economic crisis and structural adjustment.

This research report examines the ways in which medical professionals have responded to the changing environment of work and livelihood in Zimbabwe since the adoption of a structural adjustment program. Of particular interest are those doctors and nurses who took a decision to migrate from Zimbabwe to Botswana and South Africa in search of "greener pastures".

This report is based on field work carried out in the Akyem Abuakwa area of the forest region of Ghana, a section of the country rich in agricultural land, gold, and diamonds. Through the field work which was undertaken and the empirical material generated, the author attempts to chart the processes and patterns of differentiation connected to land and land use in contemporary Ghana.

Based on interviews with 240 workers from 12 firms in the textile and metalworking industries conducted between November 1995 and March 1996, group interview discussions with representatives of workers' committees and management, discusses the effect of structural adjustment on two sub-sectors of manufacturing, on labour relations, and on coping strategies of workers.

This report examines the efficacy of the agricultural sector reforms that have been implemented in Zambia since 1991/92 when the MMD government of Fred Chiluba was elected to office. On the basis of empirical material gathered in the field, the report demonstrates the limitations of the reform and identifies a number of constraints that have hampered the private sector and made the agricultural marketing system remain relatively underdeveloped.