The World Bank and the IMF argue that SAPs are necessary to bring a developing country from crisis to economic recovery and growth. Economic growth driven by private sector foreign investment is seen as the key to development. Many groups argue that SAPs impose harsh economic measures which deepen poverty, undermine food security, and self-reliance and lead to unsustainable resource exploitation, environmental destruction, and population dislocation and displacement. They believe SAP policies have increased the gap between rich and poor in both local and global terms. Despite claims to the contrary, World Bank-imposed SAPs have paid little or no attention to their environmental impact.
SAPs call for increased exports to generate foreign exchange to service debt.
The most important exports of developing countries include timber, oil and natural gas, minerals, cash crops, and fisheries exports. The acceleration of resource extraction and commodity production that results as countries increase exports is not ecologically sustainable. Deforestation, land degradation, desertification, soil erosion and salinization, biodiversity loss, increased production of greenhouse gases, and air and water pollution are but among the long-term environmental impacts that can be traced to the imposition of SAPs. Women are bearing a disproportionate share of the burdens imposed by SAPs. For example, SAPs promote export- oriented crops, which tend to be grown by men.