The elusive prince of Denmark:Structural and the Crisis of Governance in Africa.

There has, recently, emerged a growing concern among scholars and policy makers to establish and elaborate a connection between structural adjustment and governance in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. This concern has been driven primarily by the desire for more tangible results from the on-going quest for market-driven economic reform in the adjusting countries of the Third world, especially those in Africa. Today, the governance question is presented as the missing link in the quest for successful economic reform; not to get it right is tantamount to having Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark. This report, an abridged version of which is being published by CODESRIA as part of its project on African Perspectives on Structural Adjustment, challenges the intellectual premises of the governance project of the Bretton Woods twins in Africa. It argues that in the way in which it has been articulated, the World Bank/IMF governance reform agenda can hardly be expected to lay an enduring basis for a system of democratic governance on the continent. Nor can it be expected to create a framework for non-repressive economic reforms.