Economic crisis, structural adjustment, and health in Africa

Abstract

This report applied two types of analysis to two types of data to try to quantify any short-term effect economic criswas and adjustment might have had on child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. First the aggregate data for ten countries covered by the Demographic and Health Surveys project was analyzed. Then an elaborate data set for Cote d'Ivoire collected in the mid-1980s was analyzed. Both analyses used time-period dummy variables to identify the effects of criswas and adjustment. Despite very different methodologies and data sets, the two analyses produced surprisingly similar results. The authors found that in the short run, neither crisis nor adjustment increased child mortality at the national level, relative to countries not undergoing adjustment. However, the authors examined only short-term effects - the only ones they could expect to measure. The long-run effects of criswas and adjustment will depend on adjustment's success in boosting sustained long-term growth. Such growth should reduce child mortality and speed the reduction of fertility as well, thus reinforcing declines in child mortality.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Early Child and Children's Health,Health Economics&Finance,Adolescent Health,Early Childhood Development