Gender at a glace - Zambia

By Brenda Zulu

Millenium Development Goal (MDG) number 3 ensures the promotion of gender equality and empowerment women. In March 2000, the Government of the Republic of Zambia adopted the National Gender Policy which serves as the blue print for gender and development activities. The Policy has put in place measures to address the critical areas of concern as outlined in the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action.
The 2007 Civil Society MDG report shows that Zambian Government is currently pursuing means of ensuring that the Performance Appraisal System takes into account gender to ensure that all officers in the public service are accountable in gender and development activities. To this effect, Government has embarked on the process of reviewing the job descriptions of Gender Focal Points.
The Director, Head of Planning Department in the Ministry or Government Department has been the designated Gender Focal Point with the job description reflecting key result areas and principle accountabilities on gender mainstreaming. This is to ensure that gender mainstreaming functions are performed effectively on a continuous basis without creating additional posts in the public services.
The Government has embarked on the process of engendering the national budget by training all gender focal points in line ministries and other government departments. The training focused on the incorporation of activities in the Strategic Plan of Action (SPA) in their respective annual budgets. Government, in collaboration with National Institute Public Administration, has developed a capacity build programme for gender focal points and their respective sub-committees in order to develop their gender analytical skills. It is hoped that this training will eventually lead to improved gender analysis of government policies and programmes.
There are, however, some challenges in implementing the SPA. Though Government adopted the National Gender Policy, it was silent on the affirmative action and implementation of women empowerment principles which could have developed benchmarks against which to measure the country’s progress in terms of gender mainstreaming. To this effect, Government has directed all ministries and parastatals to ensure that their annual national and sector budgets should take into account the activities outlined in the SPA.
Gender disaggregated data is essential but currently absent or very limited in Zambia. In this regard, Government has embarked on the process of mobilising resources for collection of gender disaggregated data in sector ministries for easy monitoring and evaluation of gender equality programmes. The collection of gender disaggregated data will facilitate the formulation of appropriate policy interventions in line ministries.
There is weak institutional mechanism for implementation of the National Gender Policy as result of lack of appropriate legislation. To this effect, there is need for appropriate legislation which will give clear guidelines for institutional arrangements for implementation of the National Gender Policy. The appropriate legislation will enhance the co-ordination and accountability mechanisms currently in place.
The Government has embarked on the process of developing capacity building programmes which will develop technical capacities for mainstreaming gender in all government policies, programmes and plans. The capacity building programme should also attempt to address institutional weaknesses in gender mainstreaming.
There is a high turn-over of Gender Focal Points in line ministries and government departments due to promotion, transfers, replacements and other reasons. This has affected continuity in terms of implementing the gender and development programmes. In order to redress this problem, Government has embarked on the process establishing Gender Sub-Committees in all line ministries, provincial and district administration in order to address the observed gaps in gender mainstreaming which has been a result of the non-institutionalisation of Gender Focal Points. In regard, the Gender Sub-committee will act as the link between the Gender in Development Division (GIDD) and the various institutions in order to enhance gender mainstreaming in various institutions.
Strategic Plan of Action for the National Gender Policy
Subsequent to the adoption of the National Gender Policy, Government approved and adopted the Strategic Plan of Action (SPA) for the implementation of the National Gender Policy in January 2004. The Strategic Plan of Action which covers the period from 2004 to 2008 is aimed at operationalising government’s vision on gender. The SPA is a tool for operationalising the National Gender Policy and is aimed at achieving full and equal participation and benefit of both females and males in the socio-economic and political development of Zambia.
The SPA intends to achieve government vision on gender by mainstreaming gender into macro and sectoral policies and programmes such as the Public Service Reform Programme (PSRP), Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) and the new FNDP including economic policy instruments like the Medium Term Economic Framework (MTEF) and the national budget.
The SPA takes into account global and regional instruments and development programmes such as the Beijing Platform for Action (BPA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The Southern African Development Community (SADC), Gender Declaration and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) Gender Policy. The SPA further takes into account the opportunities and challenges brought about by among others the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and African Union (AU).
Implementation Mechanisms for the SPA
Government has, through the adoption of the National Gender Policy (NGP) and it’s implementation plan, the Strategic Plan of Action (SPA), committed itself to addressing gender issues and concerns at all levels of national development. The National Gender Machinery for Zambia; GIDD at Cabinet Office is responsible for co-ordinating, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the National Gender Policy and the SPA. The role of GIDD in the implementation of the SPA is therefore to provide leadership in the co-ordination of gender and development programmes and activities of all stakeholders in Zambia

All line ministries, provincial and district administration, other organs of government, the private sector, religious groupings and NGOs will implement specific and relevant policy measures and interventions of the SPA.
The consistent adverse experience felt disproportionately by females in the education, employment and health sectors culminates in a situation in parliament where despite some improvements in 1991, only 6 % of the members of parliament were female.According to a report by Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) on the cost of meeting MDGs in Zambia (2005) the total cost for gender interventions is estimated at US$22.9 million in 2005 rising marginally to US$ 30.1 million in 2015.

Constraints
Africa Social Forum (ASF) Gender Focal Point Sara Longwe observes that despite the many efforts for improvements it has been found that most of the gender programmes lack in depth analysis and adequate resources. Measures to alleviate and reduce poverty have not fully addressed differential impact of poverty on men and women. Gender differentials have persisted at all levels of these programmes, suggesting that social and cultural factors, which play a stronger role, are not taken into account during the design and implementation of the programmes.

The lacks of gender specific targeting programs influence women and men’s life and opportunities. They may not be male biased designs, but could well be male biased by omission of a gender disaggregated data required for such assessment and the lack of recognition of women’s role and skills in poverty reduction programmes. At the same time, there has been lack of effective co-ordination among various institutions involved in poverty alleviation, leading to reduced impact on the intended target group.

Conclusion
Zambian government is committed to promoting women’s participation in decision-making at all levels to promote sustainable development. Zambia recognises that full participation of women and men in development is cardinal to achieving sustainable development. This recognition is founded in the empirical realisation that restricted participation of women in socio-economic activities has had a negative impact.
Government is therefore committed to making deliberate efforts to facilitate the removal of existing gender imbalances.

Reparations of debt in Zambia

By Brenda Zulu
Reparations of debt in Zambia have not improved the lives of Zambians as many still have problems in accessing basic services.

Services such as health, education, clean water and shelter are still a problem of many Zambians as before repapration of debt it was thought to have been a problem because of the strain put on the government by debt servicing. Poverty is also an issue with women being the most affected as many of them are unemployed.

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number eight talks about to develop global partnership for development. One of the targets is to deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long run.
Debt
The 2007 MDG Civil Society Zambia report explains that in 2002 to 2004, the debt service ratio had increased but remained constant in Zambia. Things changed when Zambia attained the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) completion point in 2005.

Zambia had its US$7.2 billion external debt slashed to about $500 million, as a reward for sticking with economic reforms under the HIPC initiative by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

However, recently the Government announced that the country’s external debt stood at $643 million since the HIPC completion point in April 2005 and that the Government has contracted eight loans totaling US$110.21 million.

The Government stated that negotiations for these project loans had started before the attainment of the completion point. This includes debts contracted earlier, but which were not part of the debt relief as they were outside the cut-off dates of December 2003 and December 2004.

It should be noted that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have been against the government taking non-concessional loans that carry normal interest rates and conditions. CSOs prefer concessional borrowing which offers poor countries more generous terms.

“This free-riding borrowing is very unhealthy, where a country begins to borrow just after receiving debt relief. Government is risking the country’s ability to have a sustainable debt, and we stand a high probability of falling back into unsustainable debt, especially if the contracted loans are from non-concessional sources. It is a threat to Zambia’s future debt solution. Years of high levels of debt servicing meant Zambia could afford minimal social expenditure, but with debt relief the government promised investment in priority areas like education and health as part of a poverty alleviation plan,” said Muyatwa Sitali of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections
(JCTR).

Meanwhile, the government stated that it would continue to borrow.

We shall borrow “for right reasons, to promote development… we don’t qualify for low-interest loans from the International Development Agency (the World Bank’s lending arm), as we are no longer regarded as highly indebted poor country, therefore we have to borrow, but we shall only be contracting concessional loans, as opposed to non-concessional loans,” stated Finance Minister Ng’ande Magande.

Although 15 percent of the 2007 national budget has been allocated to education, and 10 percent to health, critics said little would be invested because much of the budget was donor driven.

Most of the money from China was being spent on developing infrastructure like road networks and providing power in rural areas.

“Social funding was still minimal because more priority and resources are allocated to maintaining non-social issues like State House and supporting international trips than promoting social protect, and money continues to be misapplied. Even if there is allocation of funds or savings from debt relief, very little trickles down to the poor people. The whole country suffers when funds are misapplied because we still have to pay, even if there is nothing to show for what the loan was used, at expense of improving hospitals, education and our roads,” said Saviour Mwambwa, from the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR).

The Auditor General’s reports are famously known to contain numerous reports of misuse, miss-allocation and theft of public funds. A recent report by Auditor-General said misapplication of public funds was rampant in Zambia, and about $1 million in HIPC funds was unaccounted for by the Ministry of Community Development in 2005 alone.

Where is Zambia coming from?
It is important to put the scenario for poverty reduction in proper perspective.
In the case of Zambia, the interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was submitted to the Bretton Woods institutions in July 2000 and the full PRSP was submitted in March 2002, approved and launched in June 2002 to cover the period 2002 to 2004. On the part of the Zambian government, the goal of reaching the completion point by December 2004 to achieve debt relief was the most important activity.
The completion point was however reached only in April 2005, extending the anxiety of debt relief and therefore becoming the dominant development discourse in Zambia between 2002 and 2005. Zambian CSOs set up Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, an NGO specifically meant to allow Zambian CSOs participate in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of poverty reduction strategies.
The significance of the HIPC process is underscored by Zambia’s own reality: The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report states that at the time of independence in 1964, Zambia was a middle income country with a per capita income of US$ 1,500. Since then it has experienced one of the most dramatic declines into the category of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) with a per capita income of US$ 380 (2003) as compared to Canada’s US$ 23,930 (2003).
Zambia ranks 177 out of the 190 countries covered by the United Nations Human Development Indicators. 73% of the population lives below the poverty datum line and it is estimated that 20% of the adult population is living with HIV/AIDS virus. Zambia declined into a heavily indebted country with a debt stock of US$ 7.2 billion and an estimated scheduled debt service repayment of US$ 600 million; well beyond its export means and therefore requiring significant debt relief which earlier debt relief mechanisms had been unable to address.
Being a severely indebted low income country with a per capita income of US$ 350 and a per capita debt of US$ 220 in 1999 Zambia had no choice but go through the HIPC process in order to secure the necessary debt relief. At decision point in late 2000, Zambia looked forward to a debt stock reduction of US$ 3.8 billion from a debt stock of US$ 7.2 billion and a reduction in debt service from roughly US$ 600 million to US$ 165 million at completion point. With much struggle, which included policy slippages, Zambia finally reached the HIPC Completion Point in April 2005 securing bilateral debt relief promised at the time of the decision point.
The Gleneagles G8 Summit of June 2005 brought further hope as the IMF announced in December 2005 that Zambia would be granted debt relief through the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) reducing the overall Zambian Debt Stock to US$ 500 million and therefore an overall annual savings of US$ 500 million. The importance of the PRSP in relation to debt relief was realized by the Zambian government. It maintained the required fiscal discipline especially during 2004.

In terms of content, the Zambian PRSP, covering the period 2000 to 2004 drew up programme of action to redress the evident poverty which had deepened to cover 73% of the population by 1998 as noted above. The main purpose of the PRSP was to promote sustainable economic growth and to improve social services and infrastructure. The PRSP identified HIV/AIDS, Gender and the environment as crosscutting issues and good governance and improved public sector management as providing an enabling environment for implementation of the PRSP. There were clear intervention strategies in various sectors for achievement of PRSP objective of poverty reduction.