Accelerated Development in sub-Saharan Africa: an Agenda for Action [World Bank 198l) provides the first comprehensive example of the new post McNamarat World Bank thinking applied to a whole region rather than an individual country. If the Report is representative, concern for reduction of inequalities, provision for basic needs, and alleviation of absolute poverty appears to have fallen in the Bank's ranking of priorities. Equity and distribution concerns have been supplanted by a re-emphasis upon the growth of production, and upon the adoption of 'outwardoriented' policies as a means of adjustment in the face of structural balance of payments problems. This policy change has coincided with the expansion of general balance of payments lending by the Bank, in support of approved 'structural adjustment' programmes. The Accelerated Development Report is the strongest general statement to date of the policy change. It is also the most detailed public exposition of the kinds of programmes the Bank would be willing to support with structural adjustment lending. While this evolution in World Bank thinking