Bretton Woods intervention programmes and sustainable development

Since the beginning of the 1980s the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund) have introduced structural adjustment loans and stabilization programmes to correct balance-of-payments distortions and to realize the conditions necessary for economic growth in developing countries. In the course of the 1980s, the concept of sustainable development was launched which asked for a qualitatively different orientation of growth. This paper presents a summary of what has been learned with respect to the relationship between Bretton Woods intervention programmes and development. Adjustment programmes appear to have evolved through three different stages, with attention for environmental aspects of sustainable development emerging in the third stage. A sectoral analysis is presented of the possible environmental impacts of the various components of intervention programmes. Recommendations are made regarding possible improvements of WB and IMF adjustment strategies in the light of sustainable development, without fully translating them into actual changes at the level of specific programmes.