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Editorial News of Thursday, 23 August 2001

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No positive change so far

The Deputy General Secretary of the National Reform Party (NRP), Ms Emelia Arthur, has stated that, despite the popular demand for positive change and obvious failure of structural adjustment policy, nothing positive has happened in the Ghanaian society.

Ms Arthur, according to ‘The Evening News’ story, said this is evident in the country's acceptance of stringent "adjustment" conditionalities associated with the HIPC initiative of the World Bank and the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) of the USA.

According to her, the country is yet to see initiatives in support of local productivity since current steps being taken have resulted in privatisation of water and power, state-owned banks and withdrawal of state support for tertiary education and health care.

Ms Arthur made the remarks at a leadership, human rights and democratic training course in Accra.

She observed that, recent national crisis is a reflection of the failure of "Structural adjustment" policies adopted under the guidance of World Bank/IMF in the past 20 years.