Citizenship and poverty : what prospects in Africa?

Abstract

In Africa, the 80s were popularly known as the decade of structural adjustment and the preponderance, of international-institutions in national policies. It was acknowledged by all, the World Bank included that adjustment programmes failed to atain their objectives. On the contrary, they were, in most cases, the cause of the harsh social relations, the aggravation of the living conditions of the populations and poverty: the priority given over the years to the restoration of macroeconomic balances and the payment of external debt was reflected by the abandonment of the social sectors, for which the efforts were themselves very limited.