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JCTR BASIC NEEDS BASKET April 2007 The cost of food for a family of six in Lusaka has increased by K4,650 to K514,600 for the month of April from K509,950 recorded in the month March. This is according to the Basic Needs Basket survey conducted every month by the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) to estimate cost of food and essential non-food item. As much as the “collective” cost of food items shows this increase of K4,650, the price behaviour of individual items was mixed. For example, where as increases were recorded in – 25kg bag of breakfast meal (up by K500), 1kg Kapenta (up by K700), 1kg meat (up by K200), a unit of eggs (up by K400), 2 litres of cooking oil (up by K500) and 500g tea leaves (up by K1,100) – there were reductions in food items such as dry fish (1kg down by K1,400), tomato (1kg down by K200) and onion (1kg down K400). For essential non-food items, minor increases were recorded in both wash and bath soap (up by K100), and Jelly -- vaseline increased by K600. Charcoal, packed in a 90Kg bag, recorded a substantial reduction (K8,000) from costing K60,500 in March to costing K52,500 in April. One important thing to note regarding this situation of prices is the seasonality and policy dimensions in offering explanation. For example, the reduction in the price of fish is associated with government’s lifting of the fish ban and the reduction in the price of charcoal is associated with the beginning of a time of easy production and transportation. For the above reason, the JCTR conducts the monthly Basic Needs Basket not as a mere statistical exercise but to understand the dynamism of living conditions seen through cost of living. In capturing prices of food and non-food essential items, the Basic Needs Basket helps in understanding fluctuations of intense and mild difficult economic situations experienced by households and therefore shading light on the kind of strategies or policy responses to design. In order to further understanding of living conditions of the people, the JCTR links the Basic Needs Basket in quantitative figures and the actual qualitative living conditions of the people through monthly interviews with select households in high density areas. During March for example, this work showed that the largest source of expenditure in many households was on food, followed by non-food items and then expenditure on health. The fact that households spend much of their incomes in meeting their immediate needs implies that they are unable to save and therefore cannot invest in areas designed to secure their lives (e.g., make capital, education investments, etc). Even more critically, the qualitative interviews not only reveal on what the income is spent but also how that income is spent. The interviews established that most of the households in the high density areas rely upon candles and small packs of charcoal for energy, buying approximately 2 to 4 candles per day (K500 each) and 2 small plastics of charcoal (K1,000 each) which works out to be much higher in cost than buying in larger quantities such as estimated by the Basic Needs Basket. For example, purchased in small quanties, on average the cost of energy for a household without electricity totals approximately K3,000 to K4,000 per day, or K90,000 to K120,000 per month. But it is the resilience and creativity with which most of the Zambian people have in responding to the challenge of high cost of living that needs to be encouraged by way of policy responses or strategies. These responses or strategies must include “quality” formal employment creation and access to credit arrangements that lead to establishing economic activities that go beyond just meeting household consumption needs. |
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