Debt and Adjustment

This text is based on original research carried out during 13 months fieldwork in Jamaica. The first key theme is an examination of the damage to the social environment and ecology of the island, which has resulted from IMF/World Bank prescribed structural adjustment policies. The second is the identification of a social movement in Jamaica of community environmental groups, some based in ultra-poor squatter communities. The study presents data and case studies which are characteristic of many "third world" countries, and links Jamaica's heavy external indebtedness to its deteriorating social environment and ecology.