Final report : politics of economic reform in sub-Saharan Africa

Chapter 1 gives a short history of economic reform efforts in the region from the 1960"s through the 1980"s. Chapter 2 describes the framework used to analyze the politics of reform in each nation. Chapter 3 summarizes the five country studies, which are presented in full in Chapters 4-8. Chapter 9 draws together insights and policy implications from the case studies, while Chapter 10 focuses on their implications for USAID operations. Major lessons learned include the following. (1) Although the weight of political influence in most sub-Saharan African countries remains with those opposed to reforms, there is increased acceptance of the need for economic reform. (2) Democracy does not guarantee good governance, nor does autocratic rule preclude it. Nor is it clear that political liberalization will promote economic discipline. (3) Policy- based program support is inherently risky. Conditionality in itself is not sufficient to achieve policy reform targets. (4) Donors have consistently overestimated host country capacity to implement reforms while underestimating the complexity of the reforms themselves. USAID should be less dominating in the design phase of policy reform and more involved in subsequent phases.