(a) Social Economic and Political

Although Zambia is well endowed with natural resources, the majority of the country’s population lives in absolute poverty. This is largely a result of several variants of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which has led to drastic reductions in public spending on social services and wide scale retrenchments and redundancies within the workforce. However, dwindling governance also contributes to the country’s high rise in poverty levels.

Despite rhetorical commitment to diversification from copper to agriculture and tourism, the structure of the economy continues to be heavily reliant on the performance of the copper mining sector. The poor performance of this sector since the mid-1970s, occasioned by a combination of external price shocks and domestic mismanagement, is largely responsible for the country’s economic crisis.

Poverty levels have increased from 69.7 percent in 1991 to about 80 percent in 2000 (CSO, 2003). With the severity of poverty being in rural areas. 83 percent of the rural population have been classified as very poor (i.e. living below the poverty line). Access to health care in Zambia is very poor, while there is a critical shortage of essential drugs in most health centres

Elections held in December 2001, which were plagued by irregularities, saw the ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) return to power, albeit by the narrowest of margins and under the leadership of a newly elected president, Levy Mwanawasa. Opposition parties have since challenged the results of the poll.

There has been an increasing public outcry calling for the prosecution of former President Fredrick Chiluba and some of his cabinet members and senior government officials on charges of corruption and embezzlement of public funds. Chief Justice Mathew Ngulube was forced to resign as part of the clamp down on corruption.

Political intolerance continues with some critics and opponents of the MMD harassed and arrested.

A number of laws that hinder the advancement of people’s rights remain on the statute books, including the Public Order Act.

The judicial system is inefficient and politically compromised, and corruption is rife. There are however, signs that this may change with President Mwanawasa’s hard stand on corruption.

Women continue to occupy a low socio-economic status, which is further exacerbated by discriminatory laws. However, the women’s movement is a strong and vibrant part of the country’s well-developed civil society.

HIV/AIDS (and the attendant problem of orphans and reduced economic production of citizens) is a big problem.

Government’s response to the economic malaise has led to the production of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (2002 -2004). According to the plan its goal is to reverse Zambia’s deteriorating socio-economic conditions, and to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals. In addition, a Transitional National Development Plan (2002-2005), which is intended as the nation’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework aimed at more systematic and medium term budgeting was also launched. The Planning framework is meant to offer more predictability in terms of what can be expected from GRZ resource allocation. However, government’s challenge is to monitor its implementation because already the 2003 budget reflects a huge budget overrun attributed by government to salary and housing allowance increments awarded to public service workers. However, civil society organisations attribute this overrun to government extravagant expenditures on foreign trips, a bloated cabinet, District Administrators structure, expenditure on by-elections and increase in allowances for the President, Vice President and ministers and the purchase of expensive motor vehicles.

Zambia’s ranking according to the United Nations Human Development Report 2002 is 163 out of 175 countries. The economic and social indicators are below the sub-Saharan Africa average. Nonetheless, from the 2002/2003-harvest season, Zambia recorded a “bumper harvest”. However, the challenge is to see how the harvest will be managed to ensure that no sectors of the population will go hungry.

Economic governance continues to be a problem as evidenced by government inconsistency on privatisation of key parastatals amidst strong objections by civil society to the privatisations. Despite the government making public pronouncements about not privatising it went behind the nation’s back and negotiated deals to sell important public assets. It is interesting that for government it is business as usual despite that the revelations about plunder of national resources by the previous regime has focused the spotlight on issues of economic and political governance

New developments on the political scene have seen unprecedented moves by the President appointing opposition party members to ministerial positions − this move has been seen by the opposition as attempts at weakening the opposition. The contentious appointment of the Vice President has raised constitutional contentions and has been challenged in court by the opposition. In addition a controversial motion was tabled in parliament to impeach President Levy Mwanawasa for violating the Constitution and also to answer allegations of corrupt practices in awarding of government tenders and contracts. However, the motion was defeated.

Constitutional Review Commission has been appointed by the President amidst controversies regarding lack of both representativity and consultation. In addition there is strong opposition from civil society on the mode of adoption of the constitution and the government has been adamant on the issue and insisted that it would proceed with the review of the constitution despite calls from outside government to boycottthe process.

Since 1992, the Zambian government implemented a series of health reforms designed to provide citizens with equity of access to cost effective and quality health care. The strategy has focused on primary health care, which is developing the health system at the district level and nearest to the people as possible in order to provide a package of basic health care services. Zambia’s health indicators remain unfavourable, with life expectancy at 35 years in 2002 compared to 42 years in 1980.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among the adult population is 16 percent, which is among the highest in the world. Some estimates suggest that one in every five Zambian is HIV-positive. Access to anti-retroviral treatment (ART) remains a major problem. While government’s plans to provide ARVs to 10,000 HIV/AIDS patients that is grossly inadequate. The government recently announced that it has covered 13,000 patients with ARVs and aims to reach 100,000 in three years.1 But even that is miniscule.

Other concerns in the health sector include other diseases such as malaria, diabetes, tuberculosis and cancer. Malaria, however, continues to be a major cause of death in Zambia and represents the second greatest challenge to Zambia’s health system after HIV/AIDS. Tuberculosis tends to be HIV-related and follows a long and expensive treatment regime. While government policy is to exempt the payment of user fees for those suffering from TB, diabetes and cancer, there is lack of knowledge about the facility and very few people are taking advantage of the treatment

(b) Media, Freedom of Expression and Information & Communication Technologies

The conflict between the government and the private media seems to have subsided considerably after President Mwanawasa replaced Fredrick Chiluba. However, Mwanawasa has faithfully followed the footsteps of his mentor and facilitator to the high office by pursuing frivolous court cases, including criminal defamation charges against the Post newspaper.

One of Mwanawasa’s most decisive moves to date has been the pursuit of corrupt officials from the former regime − Chiluba included. The private media has played an important role in bringing much of this corruption into the public sphere, just as it played an important role in 2001 in the successful campaign against Chiluba’s bid to stand for a third term as President.

Although, in the early days of his regime at least, Mwanawasa’s government has appeared less obsessed with hounding the private media than his predecessor, the tools of oppression remain intact and the government continues to control the state media and the communications regulator. Additionally, there are only a few moves to reform the plethora of anti-media laws on the statute books.

Nonetheless, Zambia’s media landscape is becoming increasingly diverse, largely as a result of the growth of private and church-run radio stations, both in the capital Lusaka and outlying provinces. These have the potential of playing a significant role in the development and democratisation of the communities they serve.

There is still a long way to go before the majority of Zambians have adequate access to a diversity of information and the media.

While civic society in Zambia is relatively strong and well organised, civic groups do not make effective use of mass media to advance their objectives, and there is scope for much more creative use of media to promote Open Society objectives.

The cost of communications licenses (broadcasting and ICTs) is prohibitively high.

On the positive side, two new media laws: Independent Broadcasting Authority Act and the Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation Amendment Act, were passed by parliament after extensive negotiations with media advocacy organisations.

The liberalisation of the Zambian telecommunications and IT sector has made prices for basic access much higher.

The lack of a competent regulator is a barrier to development of the ICT sector.

(c) Education and Indigenous language policy

Up until the late 1980s, the Zambian education system was performing very well. However, the on-going deterioration of essential services has resulted in increasing numbers of children having no access to quality basic education.

In urban areas, school places have become harder to come by, and many children are forced to enrol at congested, poor-quality ‘private’ schools in the city’s shanty compounds. Meanwhile, enrolment rates in rural areas also have been falling.

School dropout rates have risen, as poverty and the deaths of many parents have forced more and more children to leave school and fend for themselves.

An increasing number of children are being forced to live in poor, congested and unsanitary surroundings, resulting in high levels of child morbidity, absenteeism etc.

There has been drastic deterioration in the quality of school buildings, while the number and motivation of teachers is falling, resulting in less and less time being given to children’s education

HIV and AIDS - with its attendant problems of high teacher morbidity and mortality rates, and a swelling in the numbers of orphans attending schools - poses a major challenge to the Zambian education system. Teachers face attrition from the HIV/AIDS pandemic which has created an acute shortage of teacher in the country.

Zambia enjoys a relatively high adult literacy rate, at 78% of the adult population. This is, however, affected by insufficient resources to address the declining capacity of the education system to cater for an increasing population.

The education system faces problems of falling standards in the quality of education.

The government also lacks financial resources to employ qualified teachers. For example, over 9,000 teachers could not be employed by Government for more than two years as it lacked funds.2 The education system has also experienced overcrowding in classroom, high teacher-pupil ration and inadequate teaching materials.

The Government through Basic Education Sub-Sector Investment program (BESSIP) is involved in decentralising functions to provincial, district and community structures to support this provision of education.

The Mwanawasa government also adopted in 2002 a policy of free primary education for all. The implementation of this policy is part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper’s (PRSP) education strategy. Through this policy Government provides schools with a grant so as to exempt pupils in primary school (Grade 1 − 7) from paying PTA levies and other school fees. The official policy is to provide free education from Grade 1 to 9, but this has not been implemented due to lack of funds.

Zambia lacks an indigenous language policy. At independence, English was made the medium of instruction form Grade one onwards.

The advantages for introducing English as an official language at independence were cited as to:

• improve the quality of spoken and written language.
• enhance possession by all of a language of wide communication.
• improve in the general education development of children because there is more literature.
• ensure greater ease in learning at the upper-end of the primary and in secondary schools.
• the advantage of transferring the reading and writing skills to vernacular, which are phonetically written.

Furthermore the only local languages which received government recognition were Cibemba, Kikaonde, Silozi, Lunda, Luvale, Cinyanja and Citonga. Only these languages could be taught in schools according to the map of the language zones. The effect of this policy is that while literature in Zambian languages has flourished in the seven official languages, literature previously available in the other languages has now completely disappeared. Writing new books in Lenje, Namwanga, Tumbuka, Mambwe, Ila, Mbunda have not appeared for lack of a readership.

The status of a Zambian Language in the education system has been eroded by the low rating accorded to it by the public at large. Very few tertiary institutions accept Zambian Language as an entry qualification, except in very special circumstances.

Currently, Zambia has a total of seventy three ethnic groups speaking different languages. Seven of them namely: Kikaonde, Lunda, Luvale, Cinyanja, Cibemba Citonga and Silozi have been recognised as official languages. They are the only ones taught or used as subjects in schools, on radio and television, in vernacular newspapers and courts of law.

The use of English as a medium of instruction and official communication has serious disadvantages. In the national assembly and in local authorities, a lot of MPs and councilors do not speak in the chamber as they are unable to express themselves well in English. It would important to consider simultaneous translations in indigenous languages during parliamentary and council debates. OSISA and its partners may consider supporting initiatives aimed at studying the effect of lack of adequate literacy in English in the participation of MPs and Councilors in deliberations and whether use of local languages would enhance effective communication.

The government does not seem to have a clear policy on the direction of indigenous languages. The development of indigenous languages is important as it helps preserve cultural values and customs. Language is dynamic and what needs to be done is to write and develop the languages, thereafter it will be possible to transmit most of the idioms, poems and folklore.

It is important to change the attitudes of Zambians towards their own languages. Currently local languages are being shunned and rated inferior to English.

1 Health Minister Brian Chituwo, Times of Zambia, 17/11/04.

2 Recently, the Royal Netherlands embassy provided funds for the employment of the 9,000 trained teachers.