The story’s pivot comes during a tense negotiation at the IMF’s regional headquarters. The mission chief, a pragmatic but unyielding French economist named Delacroix, says: “Your GDP will contract 4% this year. But without reform, it’s 12%.”

Here’s a short draft story for a course like — focusing on themes like structural adjustment, debt, and local resilience. Title: The Price of Adjustment

The fictional coastal nation of Veridia — rich in natural gas, poor in infrastructure, 2024.

But Amara sees what the spreadsheets don’t show. Her own aunt, a nurse at the public hospital in Port Miriam, already works without gloves or electricity. Removing fuel subsidies will triple transport costs. Rural farmers, already crushed by imported rice dumping, will lose their last buffer.

Amara’s boss, Minister Kofi Mensah, is desperate. “Sign, or we lose all access to international capital markets,” he tells her.