UN General Assembly
1990

Notwithstanding the special programme adopted by the United Nations in 1986, economic and social conditions on the African continent have steadily deteriorated year after year. In point of fact, the implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990, has been seriously hampered by an adverse international economic environment. The plummeting prices of Africa's export products, the exacerbation of the external debt crisis, the lessening of capital flows in terms of official development aid, and the inverse transfer of financial resources from Africa to the developed countries have deprived Africans of the wherewithal needed to implement their development programmes. Moreover, despite the positive results recorded in terms of structural adjustment programmes, the application of these policies and programmes has contributed in many countries to increased unemployment, decreasing expenditures in such essential sectors as health and education and the marginalisation of a large sector of the population, thereby heightening social tension.