Bretton Woods Colonialism

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Colonialism and the prescribed policies of the Bretton Woods Instutitions, namely the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the early 1970’s have heavly influenced the West-African country’s pre- as well as post-indepencence public policy making. The Bretton Woods Institutions’ understading of development was to quickly gain significant economic development, which in their prescription was a prerequisite to social development, which would follow after a certain amount of economic development has been achieved. Yet, in reality the experience of a country going through enormous developmental changes such as Ghana is, has shown that achieving economic targets alone does not automatically secure the existence of sound social protection…show more content…
Under it, he planned to spend £25 million on building a harbour, extending the railways, building new roads, providing water, drains, public works and schools, post and telegraph facilities, maps and surveys ( Guggisberg, ). The plan itself was highly inspired by the social development proceedings in the UK at that time, looking into a rather industrial society. At Ghana’s independence in 1957 the country’s economy was predominalty of agrarian character. The leading Party Conventionalist People’s Party (CPP) headed by Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a socialist party provided free health care services and education to its people, financed primarily in the early days through tax revenues. Through the introduction of an import substitution industrialization (ISI) any issues pertaining to poverty were effectively addressed, such as the increase of employment rates and literarcy rates. However, this form of state dominated economy failed to last and could no longer be sustain under the weight of a growing population, increase of oil import prices and widening trade deficits. With the rise of uncertainty of the socio-economic and political situation in Ghana, President Nkrumah was overthrown, followed by frequent coup d’etats. These political as well as the on-going economic changes had a detrimental effect on Ghana’s economy. Throughout…show more content…
While the reforms, imposed by the Bretton Woods Insitutions to further development in less economically developed countries, resulted in a more stable national economy and some slight growth, the refoms had a detrimental impact on the social well-being of the people of Ghana. For instance income inequality reached heights like never before, poverty spread out wider and took on a new face, real wages encountered either stagnation or decline, dispiraties between rural and urban populations rose, an accelatered devaluation of the Cedi, in addition to a halt in subsidies for typicxal social services such as education and health. After realizing what these neoliberal economic polciies in fact had caused to the alreadx fragile economies, the policies received a pseudo-social dimension by its makers. The architects dediced to put a “humane” face to neo-liberal development policies, by looking into the production of more socially targeted reform polcies. As a result the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost od the Adjusment (PAMSCAD) was implemented as an afterthought to the World Bank’s and IMF’s Structural Adjustement Programme (SAP) (SOPDAP, 2015). Unforneately, the results from ths programme seemed to have followed its predeccessors routes. While funds for the programme were supplied, the projects were poorly utilized and supply orienatetd. Therefore, numerous progammes cameinto
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