ecords of development history indicate that socioeconomic
crises diverse in intensity, nature, dimensions
and impact have been part of human existence through
time. The economic crisis in Peru in the 1989/90, the 1998 Asian
financial crises, Mexico’s “Tequila” financial crisis in 1994/5
etcetera, are only the most recent economic recessions which had
adverse socio-economic impacts on the quality of life of the
affected regions’ citizens, particularly children. Today, when the
attention of world leaders is expected to be on programmes and
strategies to actualize the Millennium Development Goals
(MDG’s) almost a decade after the Millennium Declaration in
September 2000, the world is trapped by heinous and debilitating
food and financial crises–global in nature and devastating in
impact. Financial slow-downs affecting monetary expansion
among both private and public enterprises, food shortages, and
rising food and fuel prices have been key characteristics of the
crises impacting the world economy today. In Africa, there have
been threats of closure of businesses and economic retrenchment in
Zambia and Botswana. However, this situation is no new
experience in the socio-economic history of Africa, particularly
south of the Sahara. A precursor to the global financial crisis is the
R“lost decade” for Africa in the 1980s. A critical sub-Saharan
African situation which necessitated the adoption of the World
Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Structural Adjustment
Programme (SAP) to save African economies from their utterly
bad shape. Many African countries gained independence with high
expectations for rapid economic growth, poverty reduction and
improvement in the living conditions of masses of their citizenry.
Not long after independence, however, several of these countries
were hard-hit and engulfed in a serious socio-economic downturn.
In the 1980s specifically, Africa south of the Sahara experienced a
serious economic crisis unprecedented in the region. Signs of
deterioration became visible with manifold manifestations in the
early 1970s, aggravating in the 1980s. A review of the nature,
dimensions and impact of the African crises of the 1980s on the
socio-economic lives of vulnerable groups is relevant for policy
lessons to contain the food, fuel and financial crises of today.