The early nineteen eighties witnessed the distinct advent of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in Zambia. Since then SAP began slowly but steadily to gather steam and the middle eighties even saw a vigorous though brief phase of implementation of SAP polices
amidst great debate and controversy. The politically unmanageable consequences of the policies (e.g. food riots at the end of 1986 as a result of lifting subsidies on maize meal) compelled the then Zambian Government to beat a hasty retreat and revert to its more familiar domain of controls. By this action, the Government alienated itself from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and many of the bilateral donors.