Senegals Groundnut Economy Under Structural Adjustment: Liberalization at Risk of Failure

Since the 1980s Senegal has undergone several economic reforms under the structural adjustment programmes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. In the context of debt relief, the country is currently privatizing its groundnut economy. This book shows that if Senegalese groundnut oil production is to continue, then a reform of the sector is absolutely necessary. But it also explains that the present reform is at risk of failure because the policies proposed by the IMF and World Bank do not consider the structural rigidities that hinder liberalized groundnut production within the country. That the policies of the IMF and World Bank take into account mainly external conditions but not internal structural problems, might be due to insufficient research by the IMF and World Bank consultants. The fault might also lie on the side of the Senegalese government that seems to have overestimated the groundnut production and this in turn probably led to the IMF and World Bank consultants obtaining a wrong impression of the Senegalese groundnutsector and its inefficiencies.