#189 The Underside of the Debt: A Rapporteur's Report

By Guy Pfeffermann, Jeffry Frieden, Joan Nelson, William McGreevey, Elaine Zuckerman, Sheldon Annis, Peter Henriot, Sally Yudelman, and Andrew I. Rudman

From the Introduction

When the debt crisis first appeared in Latin America at the beginning of the 1980s, conventional wisdom suggested that it would be short-lived if stringent austerity measures were implemented. The poor could be ignored for this brief period, after which conditions for all would improve. As it became increasingly clear that the debt crisis would be long-term problem, banks and other holders of Latin American debt have been farced to shift from short-term adjustment and crisis management policies to viable and constructive long-term policies. Therefore the economic impact of structural adjustment on the poor, a vast majority of Latin American society, becomes an issue of increasing concern and importance. How do the poor relate to the policy process? To explore various facets of this issue, the Latin American Program conducted four seminars within the Economic Issues series entitled, "The Underside of the Debt."

The paper for Session One, "Adjustment and the Latin American Poor," was presented by Guy Pfeffermann, the Chief of the Debt and Macroeconomic Adjustment Division of the World Bank. The second session, "The Political Economy of Want," featured papers by Jeffry Frieden, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California Los Angeles and Joan Nelson, a Fellow at the Overseas Development Council. "Safety Nets and Public Policy," the third session of the series was conducted by William McGreevey, Team Leader for Population, Health, Nutrition, Division of Human Resources, The World Bank and Elaine Zuckerman, Policy Analyst for Poverty and Adjustment Issuesat the World Bank. Three papers were presented in the fourth and final session, "Popular Organizations and Survival Strategies in Latin America." Sheldon Annis, a Fellow at the Overseas Development Council and a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University was followed by Peter Henriot, S.J., the Executive Director of Center for Concern, Washington, D.C. and by Sally Yudelman, Senior Fellow at the International Center for Research on Women.