During the early 1980s, under the leadership of A. W. Clawson, the World Bank shifted emphasis in a neoliberal direction. The first sign of change came with a report on development in sub-Saharan Africa prepared by the bank’s African Strategy Review Group, coordinated by Elliot Berg (World Bank 1981). The report concluded that the key problems of the region—low economic growth, sluggish agricultural performance, rapid rates of population increase, and balance of payments and fiscal crises—derived from both internal and external factors exacerbated by “domestic policy inadequacies”: trade and exchange rate policies over-protected industry, held back agriculture, and absorbed too much administrative capacity; there were too many administrative constraints, and the public sector was overextended; there was a bias against agriculture in price, tax, and exchange rate policies. These shortcomings had to be addressed, the group concluded, if production was to be given a higher priority. While reluctant to recommend specific measures, the group found that existing state controls over trade were ineffective, expressed the belief that private sector activity should be enlarged and the state sector reduced, and further concluded that agricultural resources should be concentrated on small farmers and human resources should be improvedunder an export-oriented development strategy. Here we find strong hints of neoliberal development policy.