Introduction

The conditions under which African governments have had to respond to the global crisis of the early 1980s have had the effect of locking them into new forms of dependent relationships with western governments and international financial organisations. In particular, the acute balance of payments crises suffered by most African states in recent years, and the accompanying disruption of local production, have undermined the continent’s ability to service foreign debt incurred in better times. Indeed, many countries have been forced to go even deeper into debt in an effort to stave off economic collapse and/or to attempt to stimulate economic recovery. In particular, they have turned to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for balance of payments loans. Usually, they have done so reluctantly, and because they have exhausted other possibilities of obtaining finance. Sometimes, banks, bilateral donors and other sources of funding insist that African governments borrow from the international institutions as a condition for maintaining their own contribution to balance of payments assistance. Their enthusiasm for this flows from the fact that Fund/Bank assistance carries with it the requirement that borrowers pursue economic policies acceptable to the international institutions, a requirement which explains the reluctance of most governments to draw on this assistance except as a last resort.