Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-28T06:36:37.643Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bretton Woods intervention programmes and sustainable development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2017

J.B. Opschoor  and
S.M. Jongma
J.B. Opschoor
Affiliation:
Institute of Social Studies, P.O. Box 29776, 2502 LT, The Hague, Netherlands, email: opschoor@iss.nl
S.M. Jongma
Affiliation:
Department of Spatial and Environmental Economics, Free University of Amsterdam, De Boelaan 1105, HV Amsterdam, Netherlands
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1980s the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund) have introduced structural adjustment loans and stabilization programmes to correct balance-of-payments distortions and to realize the conditions necessary for economic growth in developing countries. In the course of the 1980s, the concept of sustainable development was launched which asked for a qualitatively different orientation of growth. This paper presents a summary of what has been learned with respect to the relationship between Bretton Woods intervention programmes and development. Adjustment programmes appear to have evolved through three different stages, with attention for environmental aspects of sustainable development emerging in the third stage. A sectoral analysis is presented of the possible environmental impacts of the various components of intervention programmes. Recommendations are made regarding possible improvements of WB and IMF adjustment strategies in the light of sustainable development, without fully translating them into actual changes at the level of specific programmes.

Type
Policy Opinions
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 183 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © 1996, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abaza, H. (1995), ‘UNEP/World Bank Workshop on the Environmental Impacts of Structural Adjustment Programmes’, Ecological Economics 14(1): 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akyuz, Y. and Dell, S. (1987), ‘The role of the International Monetary Fund’, in UNCTAD (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrow, K., Bolin, B., Costanza, R., Dasgupta, P., Folke, C., Holling, C.S., Jansson, B., Levin, S., Maler, K., Perrings, C. and Pimentel, D. (1995), ‘Economic growth, carrying capacity and the environment’, Ecological Economics 15(2): 91–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, J.T. (1992), Structural Adjustment and the Environment, London Environmental Economics Centre.Google Scholar
Maler, Bojo J. and Unemo, L. (1992), Environment and Development: An Economic Approach, Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Ac. Publ.Google Scholar
Corbo, V., Fisher, S. and Webb, S.B., eds. (1992), Adjustment Lending Revisited: Policies to Restore Growth, Washington D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Daly, H.E. (1994), ‘Fostering environmentally sustainable development: four parting suggestions for the World Bank’, Ecological Economics 10: 183–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denters, H.M.G. (1993), ‘IMF Conditionaliteit’, Ph.D. dissertation, VU Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Falloux, F. and Talbot, L.M. (1993), Crisis and Opportunity: Environment and Development in Africa, London: Earthscan Publishers Ltd.Google Scholar
Foy, G. and Daly, H.E. (1989), ‘Allocation, distribution and scale as determinants of environmental degradation: case studies of Haiti, El Salvador and Costa Rica’, Environment Department Working Paper no. 19, The World Bank, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
George, S. (1992), The Debt Boomerang, London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Heering, N.B.M. and Kuyvenhoven, A. (1993), ‘Macro economic policy reform and sustainable agriculture in West Africa’, in Huijsman, A. and van Tilburg, A., eds., Agriculture, Economics and Sustainability in the Sahel, Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute.Google Scholar
James, D.E., Nijkamp, P. and Opschoor, J.B. (1989), ‘Ecological sustainability and economic development’, in Archibugi, F. and Nijkamp, P., eds., Economy and Ecology: Towards Sustainable Development, Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Ac. Publ.Google Scholar
Jansen, K. (1991), Structural Adjustment and Sustainable Development, Internationale Spectator, November 1991.Google Scholar
Markandya, A. (1994), Reconciliation of Environment and Trade Policies: Synthesis of Country Case Studies, Geneva: UNCTAD.Google Scholar
McCleary, W.A. (1991), ‘The design and implementation of conditionality’, in Thomas, V., et al. , eds., Restructuring Economies in Distress: Policy Reform and the World Bank, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mearns, R. (1991), ‘Environmental implications of structural adjustment: reflections on scientific method’, IDS-Discussion Paper no. 284, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex.Google Scholar
Mosley, P. (1987), Conditionality as Bargaining Process: Structural Adjustment Lending, 1980–1986, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mosley, P., Harrigan, J. and Tage, J. (1991), Aid and Power, the World Bank and Policy-based Lending, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Persson, A. and Munasinghe, M. (1994), ‘Economywide policies and deforestation: the case of Costa Rica’, Paper prepared for the 3rd international meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics, San José, Costa Rica, 24–28 October 1994. Environmental Economics Division, The World Bank, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Ramirez, M.D. (1993), ‘Stabilization and adjustment in Latin America: a neostructuralist perspective’, Journal of Economic Issues 27(4): 1015–1040.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, D. (1992), Structural Adjustment and the Environment, London: Earthscan Publishers Ltd.Google Scholar
Sebastian, I. and Alicbusan, A. (1989), Sustainable Development: Issues in Adjustment Lending Policies, World Bank, Environmental Department, Policy and Research Division.Google Scholar
Serageldin, I. (1993), ‘The Vice-Presidency for Environmentally Sustainable Development’, mimeo.Google Scholar
Singer, H.W. (1994), 'Structural adjustment programmes: evaluating success', in Gunning, J.W. et al. , Trade, Aid and Development, New York: St Martin's, 172–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solow, R. (1992), An Almost Practical Step Toward Sustainability, Washington, D.C: Resources for the Future.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UNCTAD (1987), Compendium of Selected Studies on International Monetary and Financial Issues for the Developing Countries, United Nations, New York.Google Scholar
UNCTAD (1990), The Least Developed Countries 1989 Report, UN, New York.Google Scholar
Warford, J. and Partow, Z. (1989), Evolution of the World Bank's Environmental Policy, Finance and Development, December 1989.Google Scholar
Weterings, R. and Opschoor, J.B. (1994), ‘Environmental utilisation space and reference values for performance evaluation’, Milieu 9: 221–229.Google Scholar
World Bank (1988), The World Bank's Lending for Structural Adjustment: an Interim Report, The World Bank, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
World Bank (1989), Adjustment Lending, an Evaluation of Ten Years of Experience, The World Bank, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
World Bank (1990), Adjustment Lending Policies for Sustainable Growth, World Bank, Country Economics Department Policy and Research Series No. 14, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
World Bank (1992), World Development Report 1992: Development and the Environment, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank (1993), The World Bank and the Environment, Washington D.C.Google Scholar
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Young, C.E.F. (1993), Adjustment Policies and the Environment: A Review, University College London.Google Scholar
Young, C.E.F. and Bishop, J. (1995), ‘Adjustment policies and the environment: a critical review of the literature’, CREED Working Papers No. 1, IIED, London.Google Scholar