Women, already overburdened, must provide healthcare and caretaking for family members. Reduce budget expense by trimming payroll and programs. Investors find country a profitable place to park cash, though they may pull it out at any moment Small farmers and businesses can t get capital to stay afloat. Small farmers sell land, work as tenants or move to worse lands. Reduce government expenditures supporting reduced cost of bread, petroleum, etc.
SAPs are anti-democratic in more than one way.
The institutions are correct in saying that the plans are formulated in part, and agreed to, by the governments. If they don t cooperate, the consequence can be a complete cut-off of credit because other lenders follow the lead of these institutions. SAPs encourage instability in democratic countries by forcing elected governments to institute measures which make them illegitimate among their people. It has been argued that the IMF prefers dictatorships to democratic governments, because dictators can more successfully impose SAPs. And once the rules are in place the WTO extends the attack on democracy by overruling any regulations that corporations claim interfere with their right to profits.