Structural Adjustment and Rural Labour Markets in Africa

Based on case studies of Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia, the book examines the changes in rural labour markets as a result of a decade of structural adjustment programmes. These programmes were meant to shift relative prices in favour of the agricultural sector, and, within the agricultural sector, in favour of export crops. In response, labour should have moved to the favoured sector. The case studies show that such a shift did not occur and the overview chapter elaborates the complexities of the African labour markets which ensured this outcome.