D. The Debt Crisis and Its Effect on African Women and Children

The Progress of Nations Report (2000) published by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) states that the day will come when nations will be judged not by their military or economic strength, nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings, but by the well-being of their peoples, i.e. by their levels of health, nutrition and education; by their opportunities to earn a fair reward for their labours; by their ability to participate in decisions that affect their lives; by the respect that is shown for their civil and political liberties; by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged; and by the protection that is afforded to the women and growing minds and bodies of their children.

This is emphasized by Roberts (2000) who notes that as the 21st century begins, the overwhelming majority of the people in the world who live in poverty are children and women. They are also the masses of civilians who are killed and maimed in conflicts and the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection. Their rights, as set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, are violated every day in numbers of such magnitude as to defy counting. He further reveals that the debt trap in the developing countries, especially in the sub-Saharan African countries, is one of the major causes of the suffering of masses of rural women and children who form the majority of the populations in these countries.

The international debt crisis has continued to worsen since it erupted in the early 1980s. The latter is the result of unprecedented borrowing, rising interest rates, falling commodity prices, inadequate investment of borrowed funds, and the domestic and international management of the resulting crisis (Adams, 1999). African countries are caught in a debt trap. The UNICEF Report (2002) points out that as African governments are diverting resources away from health, education and other social services to repay foreign debt created by prior rulers put in power by western powers to suit their interests, the most affected are poor rural women and children including their environment.

The Debt Crisis: Different Explanations

There are various explanations with regard to the causes of the debt crisis in developing countries including Africa. Some of them attribute the crisis to mismanaged lending and spending. For instance, George (1996) states that the causes of the debt crisis are a result of mismanaged spending and lending, which began in the 1960s, and 70s. The 1960s saw the USA spend more that it had, resulting in the printing of more dollars. Oil-producing countries, pegged to the dollar, were affected as the value of the dollar decreased. In 1973, the oil-producing countries hiked their oil prices, and, as a result, earned a great deal of money, which they put into Western banks. Interest rates started to plummet, leading into more lending by western banks to try to prevent a crisis. A lot of borrowed money went into Western-backed dictators, resulting in little or no investment or benefit for disadvantaged sectors such as the rural poor, i.e. women and children (As summarized by Anup Shah at

According to Bello (1994) the debt crisis began in the mid-1970s when many of the member nations of the Organizations of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) amassed great wealth. Banks were eager to lend billions of dollars to OPEC nations as well as other developing countries. These countries borrowed large sums of money at low, but floating interest rates. As a result of the irresponsibility of both creditor and debtor governments including corruption and private projects benefiting only the rich, these countries did not use the money for productive investment; rather, they spent the money on immediate consumption. Consequently, these governments amassed a lot of debt and some refused to repay their loans.

The adjustable interest loans skyrocketed in the early 1980s when the United States under Ronald Reagan attempted to reduce inflation by enforcing stringent monetary policies. The Reagan administration did all of this while also cutting US income tax rates. Around the globe, raw material prices fell sharply, meaning that poor countries had even less money to repay their debts. Many developing countries, particularly in Africa, were left in great debt, and, as a result, could no longer get loans. With nowhere else to turn, these countries have relied heavily on the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF required structural adjustment programs to be implemented by borrowing countries. Debtor governments had to agree to impose very strict economic programs on their countries in order to reschedule the debts or borrow more money. Put simply, countries had to cut spending to decrease their debt and stabilize their currency. The governments limited their costs by slashing social spending (e.g., education, health, social services, etc.), devaluing national currencies, creating strict limits on food subsidies, cutting workers' jobs and wages (especially workers in government industries and services), taking over small subsistence farms for large-scale export crop farming and promoting the privatization of public industries.

The IMF and World Bank-prescribed structural adjustment policies mean that poor countries are lent money on condition that they cut social expenditure (which is vital for economic growth and development) in order to repay the loans. Many are forced to open up their economies and being primarily commodity exporters, which, for poorer countries leads to a spiraling race to the bottom as each country must compete against others to provide lower standards, reduced wages and cheaper resources to corporations and richer nations. This further increases poverty and dependency for most people, especially the most vulnerable sections of society. Adams (1999) emphasizes that the effects of the SAP conditions, the debt crisis and globalization of poverty have often manifested themselves in wars, which are mainly trade and resource-related. These mercantile practices still happen today. The main victims of these wars are women and children. Poverty is therefore not just an economic issue; it is an issue of political economics (As summarized by Anup Shah at

The Debt Crisis and The Human Development Factor

Dely (2001) indicates that each year African countries pay the West nine times more in debt repayments than they receive in grants. Of the 32 countries classified as severely indebted low-income countries, 25 are in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa spends four times as much on debt repayment as she does on healthcare. Sub-Saharan Africa owes more than £140 billion (83 per cent of its total GNP). This enormous debt means that repayments to Western Creditors take priority and ordinary people suffer in poor health, restricted access to education, lack of employment and limited ability to trade and provide for themselves.

Portes (1992) argues that debt sustainability cannot be captured solely by reference to financial indicators. Basic human needs must also be taken into account, especially in the highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs) in Africa. For the HIPCs, the scale of unmet social need is too vast, and the rate of progress in human development too slow to leave any doubt about the need for increased budget resources for poverty reduction. Debt relief is one mechanism through which these resources could be provided. There are forty-one heavily indebted countries covered by the HIPC initiative, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. They have some of the world’s worst human development indicators. These indicators are improving at an abysmally slow rate, leaving the majority of HIPCs well ‘off track’ for achieving the 2015 human development goals.

In several HIPCs in Southern Africa such as Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique over one third of the population is not expected to reach the age of forty. Almost 50% of the population in these countries lacks access to clean water and sanitation. Deep and pervasive poverty, allied to inadequate access to basic services, results in high child mortality rates. The under-five mortality rate is 156 deaths per 1000 live births. This translates into around 3.4 million deaths annually, most of them resulting from easily preventable infectious diseases.

Gor (2002) shows that the HIPCs account for most of the 5,500 deaths, which occur each day as a result of the HIV/AIDS virus. Health systems are being stretched to breaking point by rapid increases in the incidence of secondary diseases such tuberculosis, pneumonia and measles. But the effects are not restricted to the health sector. In Zambia, where one fifth of the population is now estimated to be HIV positive, over 10 per cent of children have lost one or both parents; and HIV/AIDS claims the lives of over 600 teachers a year - equivalent to half of the graduates from teaching colleges. Furthermore, new strains of drug-resistant malaria are increasing the levels of sickness and death among vulnerable populations in the Region. As with HIV/AIDS, the crisis in efforts to control malaria in Southern Africa is placing huge strains on households and on national budgets.

Loxely (1999) shows that spending on healthcare has fallen in many of the world's poorest countries since the 1980s. Roy (2000) shows that in Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, less than US$ 8 per person is spent on healthcare, compared with US$ 24 per person on debt repayments. Riviero (2000) adds that some improvements in health gained over the 1960s and 70s have been turned back or stopped in many Southern African countries since the 1980s when the debt crisis broke. The number of children who die before the age of five, or before the age of one, has risen in most of the deeply indebted Southern African countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Lesotho, after decades of falling numbers. Diseases thought to be eradicated such as tuberculosis, yaws, and yellow fever are making a comeback in the Region as treatment and vaccination coverage declines.

Increasing rural and urban nutritional gaps in the Southern African countries have also been identified as partly due to the debt crisis. The prevalence of stunting or low height for age is consistently higher in rural areas than urban areas. Rates of stunting among rural children in these countries are 1.5 to 4.3 times more than urban rates. Stunting is a critical indicator of child malnutrition, and malnutrition plays a major role in more than half of all child deaths in Southern Africa. Studies in rural areas of Malawi, Zambia and South Africa, for example, show that children stunted before six months of age scored significantly lower on intelligence tests at 8 and 11 years of age than children who were not stunted. Stunting is also associated with diminished work capacity and increased risk of degenerative diseases in adulthood (Kelly, 2003). Dreze (1999) observed that women who are stunted are more likely to experience obstructed labour and face a greater risk of dying in childbirth.

UNICEF (2000) indicates that the picture is equally bleak in education. As schools are forced to charge fees, fewer people are able to send their children to school. Education is mainly available only to the better off. In Mozambique, one quarter of children who enter school drop out during the first two grades. Education quality in the HIPCs is typically of an abysmal standard, partly because of chronic shortages of teaching materials. Over half of the children in Zambia’s primary schools do not have a simple exercise book. The gender gap in enrollment is large (averaging over 10 per cent) and growing. The combination of low school enrollments, high drop out rates and poor quality education has restricted progress towards improved literacy. In HIPC countries such as Mozambique women’s literacy rates are below 25 per cent. This perpetuates further the economic and cultural neglect and limitation of educational opportunities for women and girls in most African societies.

With regard to universal primary education, the 2015 target for universal primary education is on the verge of becoming out-of-reach for a large number of HIPCs. Oxfam has projected forward to 2015 net enrollment rate data for the period 1990-1995. Taking into account the growth of the primary school age population, the projection indicates that 57 million children will be out of school by 2015. It should also be emphasized that this projection refers only to enrollment, the first step on the ladder to good quality universal primary education. It takes into account neither the rate of completion, nor the quality of education received by children who do attend school.

Barak (1995) reveals that the IMF lending conditions encourage hard-pressed governments to cut back spending and downsize government departments. This often means a rise in unemployment and a cut in wages. In most Southern African countries average wages have fallen by a third since 1980 and unemployment has risen to over 30 per cent of the working population. High levels of unemployment are counterproductive as there are fewer taxpayers to contribute to the public purse. So governments raise less income through taxation. This has a devastating effect on basic services delivery to the rural poor, most of them being women and children.

With regard to trade SAPs mean that African countries must increase their export crops - and as these countries are encouraged to grow the same crops, they cause a glut on the international market and prices fall. So the workers on plantations and farms get lower wages than ever. Small-scale farmers, most of them being women, also get less income from their agricultural produce and cannot support their households. Furthermore, concentration on export crops implies that small-scale farmers who used to grow their own indigenous staple food crops have to import this staple foodstuff from the industrialized countries. As a result of increasing unemployment and decreasing income from agriculture the majority of the rural households cannot afford to buy the imported foodstuff items.

The IMF conditions also made sure that any trade protection for the country's agricultural goods was lifted. So African export crops now compete with those from the western countries, which are highly subsidized and protected, using all available techniques to improve their quality. African countries become the losers, and the poor suffer. More than 30 per cent of Southern African has no cash income; more than 50 per cent make less than the minimum wage of less than US $2 a day. Sen (1995) adds that even non-emergency food aid, which seems a noble cause, is destructive, as it under-sells local farmers (mostly women) and can ultimately affect the entire economy of a poor country. If the poor African countries are not given the sufficient means to produce their own food and are not allowed to use the tools of production for themselves then poverty and dependency will continue.

The Deadly Combination of Debt and HIV/AIDS

AIDS is considered to be one of the major killer diseases in Southern Africa. Bennet (2001) emphasizes that in Southern Africa and Africa at large, the combination of AIDS, structural adjustment measures and debt is deadly. AIDS is an insidious cataclysm that the debt crisis intensifies to unimaginable proportions of human misery and despair. The disease has reversed hard won gains in life expectancy, infant mortality, and virtually every other measure of human development in Africa. In 1991, the average life expectancy in Zambia was 54 years; in 2002 it has plunged to 44 and continues to decline. Roxane (2000) indicates that by year 2010, life expectancy in some AIDS-stricken countries such as Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique will fall to around 30 years.

The debt crisis has systematically undermined the health and educational systems working to control the spread of the disease. There are 16, 000 new HIV infections every day, and 95% of the new infections have occurred in regions with the highest debt burdens, particularly in Southern Africa. In Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland, more than one in five adults is infected (Riviero, 2000).

In these poor countries it would normally fall to a child's relatives to step in to care for those who become orphans. But with infection rates so high, AIDS also strikes down many potential caregivers, mostly women. When relatives do take in orphans, the burden of care becomes great for families whose resources are already meager. According to UNICEF, children who have lost their mother or both parents are society's most vulnerable members. Socially isolated because of the stigma of AIDS, they are less likely to be immunized, more likely to be malnourished and illiterate, and more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

The tuberculosis pandemic is also debilitating the economically productive force in the Southern African region. Tuberculosis is now regarded as one of the biggest infectious killers of women and girls in the region, especially in countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Mubiana (1998) shows that women of reproductive age (14 to 44 years) in the region are more at risk to fall sick once they become infected with tuberculosis than men of the same age. Women of this age group are at great risk from HIV/AIDS, which results in young women with tuberculosis outnumbering young men with the disease. Bennet (2001) adds that the debt crisis and structural adjustment policies contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and children because the HIV/AIDS crisis thrives on poverty, social disruption and ignorance.

The Debt Crisis and the Environment

At first glance it may seem like they are separate issues, but environmental issues, poverty and the debt crisis are very much related. Wilson (1996) states that the more African countries stay in debt, the more they will feel that they need to milk the earth's resources for the hard cash they can bring in, and also cut back on social, health, environmental conservation, employment and other important programmes. She adds that there are many situations where the poor often have indigenous knowledge of their cultural and natural environment and are the best maintainers of it. But when poverty has been imposed on them and international trade agreements force them to abandon their indigenous ways of survival in this environment much is lost. Excessive debt burdens mean that it becomes harder to sustain the environment. Expensive aid and development programs from the West have been found to be destroying parts of the environment in developing countries and affecting local and indigenous people into further poverty and misery. This may be attributed, in part, to lack of consideration and communication with the people who are directly in the line of these development programmes.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Basic human needs in Southern Africa have been jeopardized by the debt crisis, especially with regard to women and children. In spite of the fact that the debt crisis is not the only factor responsible for poverty, HIV/AIDS escalation and environmental degradation in these countries, it is part of the problem. The following measures are recommended to alleviate the plight of children and women in these countries and the developing world at large:

- These countries should be free to pursue policies designed to emphasize building up of their local economies and maintaining the government's role in guaranteeing health care and other essential social services to women and children.

- Debt relief will be effective if it is integrated into comprehensive poverty reduction strategies. It should be geared towards the creation of conditions for broad-based economic growth and improved access to basic services. In this context, the HIPC reform process should be seen as one element in a broader development effort aimed at getting debtor countries back on track for the 2015 targets.

- The debt payment burden should be cancelled because it is draining much-needed foreign exchange in these countries that could otherwise be used for the provision of basic services to women and children.

- There is need to create a class-conscious approach to mobilize the civil society in the western countries that is based on feelings of solidarity with working people in the developing countries, especially in Africa (the poorest and most highly indebted continent) rather than pity. This would provide a basis for building a transnational coalition of working class forces.

- We need to interrupt the cycle of debt payments and new debt that links the interests of Western and developing countries' elites. This should involve imposing conditions on African countries' elites, such as the democratization and redistribution of wealth downward. Until now, conditionality has been a tool used by western governments to impose structural adjustment measures on African countries governments to ensure profitable access of global capital to the workers and natural resources of these countries. The building of a large transnational alliance of grassroots forces could force the governments to agree to a form of debt relief that would really address the problems at hand.

* Prof. H.O. Kaya is with the Department of Human and Social Sciences at the North West University (Mafikeng Campus), South Africa. E-mail: [email][email protected]

* Please send comments to [email protected]

* For the Bibliography to this article, please click on the link below.

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