Structural Adjustment Programmes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB)
were implemented as part of aid conditionality in Africa and Latin America since the 1980s.
There is a wide range of literature critical of SAPs. Several debates have focused on whether
the failure of SAPs was a result of the inherent weaknesses of the IMF WB sponsored structural
adjustment or whether it was caused by structural failures of policy implementation within the
African continent. The author uses the Zimbabwean case to analyze the impact of SAPs on social
service sectors in particular the public health sector.
