Adjustment is best considered as the implementation of comprehensive reforms of macro and micro policies, in response to various shocks, and to rectify inappropriate past policies that have hampered economic performance. These shocks have adversely affected the whole range of economic policy...

The labour market is one of the most important channels through which adjustment programmes affect the poor. Adjustment's poverty impact will differ between competitive and imperfect labour markets. Two effects on poverty are highlighted: changes in real wages arising from changes in labour...

Africa has come a long way since the economic turmoil of the 1980s, the decade of "structural adjustment". Growth has been strong, yet poverty remains high. Underlying the shortage of good livelihoods and high social inequality is the lack of diversification in Africa's economies-in contrast to...

The extractives industries must adjust their operations to shifting patterns of demand for oil, natural gas, and coal together with metals and minerals - as policies and new technologies encourage progress along low-carbon pathways in energy, transportation and construction to combat climate...

To continue its economic growth and create new and better livelihoods, Africa must transform the productive side of its economy. Ongoing globalization - in trade, finance, and technology - opens up new possibilities for structural transformation, but also new risks as Africa's integration with...

More than 200 researchers and policymakers came together in Helsinki in mid-May to celebrate UNU-WIDER's 25th anniversary and to discuss the 'Triple Crisis' of finance, food and climate change — and its implications for poverty, inequality and human development. Energetic debate, from a wide...

This paper presents a synopsis of the contextual conditions, factors and challenges under which the recent evolution of tax systems has taken place over the past three decades. The paper gives especial emphasis to the role of natural endowments, political economy, social structure and history,...