Topic #7 : Structural Adjustment
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Engy Naguib

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‘Despite having their roots in a mixture of internal and external factors, the most appropriate response to current problems of economic performance in countries of the Middle East is to pursue stabilization and structural adjustment policies, supported by IMF/World Bank lending packages.’ Critically appraise this statement with reference to the recent experience of one MENA country of your choice.
Many MENA countries have been facing significant economic hardships. This has forced the international community for economic intervention - serious interventions - to protect their interests in the form of economic reforms. Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programs had its failures, reflecting the failures of the post- Washington Consensus neo-liberal interventions in developing countries (Mitchelle, 1999). These failures have to reflect on choices of MENA countries as they are facing a cross-road.
Forms of intervention varied in many ways after WWI, when political imperialism was done with its role in fostering mercantilist and conventional capitalism gains (Dillard, 1988). But these powers had to be maintained, so the economic intervention was more appealing than political, during the second half of the twentieth century. This paper argues that developing countries were victims of political and economic powers struggle for dominance during the cold war, and when the west capitalist prevailed after the collapse of communism in late 1980s, the ERSAPs were the most appropriate form of intervention to eradicate any socialist traces form already weakly performing developing countries. We may also argue that the success stories of these programs were very limited, because it didn’t include serious governance reform