OUTCOMES OF POP

In March 2004, the Kasama team of Northern Province hosted a “Meet Your Mayor” Conference.  The results of this conference were the recommendations that have led to the formation of six Committees under the Kasama Municipal Council aimed at addressing developmental challenges facing the local municipality.  The committees include the following:

·         Resource Mobilization Committee -- for raising financial and material resources to feed into other committees

·         Road Infrastructure and Drainage Committee – designed to maintain and repair the deplorable road network in the townships

·         Planning and Development Committee

·         Water and Sanitation Committee

·         Rural Development Committee

·         Service Provision Committee.

In Livingstone, the Jubilee team hosted a “Meet the Local Leadership Forum” that featured a traditional leader and representatives from various churches, trade unions, political parties and the Livingstone City Council.  The team also hosted a “Meet Your Member of Parliament Forum”.  The events brought together a combined total of 841 participants.

These fora did not only concentrate on discussing local issues but also gave the local residents an opportunity to hear from their elected representatives what was happening at the national level in regards to debt, HIPC and other poverty related issues.

            In Mongu, a similar event called “Meet the Mayor Forum” featured the mayor and some councillors as panel members. This event provided an opportunity for the local civic leaders and the electorate to discuss issues relating to the development of their communities with a focus on finding lasting solutions.  The meeting also drew active participation from the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE).

IMPACT OF POP

Each of these activities fits into the overall strategy of the POP that mobilises masses of local communities through the use of Communication for Social Change (CSC).  CSC is founded on the principle that the dissemination of accurate information to a group of people empowers a community to take collective action to remedy matters that directly affect them.  Since the introduction of CSC, the POP teams have been able to engage local communities on a   larger scale for sustained action.  Now, as people append their signatures to petitions challenging international creditors to cancel Zambia’s huge external debt, they show a true understanding of this problem and its implications on the country’s quest for sustainable development.

In many instances, the response to these meetings has not only been wide-scale petitioning but also the formation of resolutions that call for the government to take action and greater participation in the campaign against poverty.  For example, in Livingstone, participants immediately called on the Former Republican President Kenneth Kaunda to actively campaign for the total cancellation of Zambia’s external debt because the larger part of the foreign debt was contracted during his reign.  In Monze, a statement was issued that called on the Finance and National Planning Minister to retract his statement that Zambia was capable of servicing its external debt as the economy was doing well.

The engagements that provincial teams have had with a number of the MPs have led to two significant positive results.  First, the teams presented common submissions to the Constitutional Review Commission on the “loan contraction process”.  Second, the MPs who have been engaged by the local Provincial teams have strongly supported their work and have spoken out at the national level.  As a positive sign, the MPs have also called on our teams to host more of such public debates not only in town-centres but also in very remote constituencies.

In Western Province, numerous callers in a live phone-in programme discussing the pullout of a contractor from a road project demanded that Jubilee-Zambia organize an immediate gathering of all Western Province MPs to review past and present projects within the province and discuss the way forward for development within all constituencies. This meeting will also provide the people an opportunity to obtain facts from the relevant government ministry on what exactly happened concerning the road construction project. 

IMPACT OF THE MEDIA

The presence of the media at these public gatherings has played a major boost in terms of mass sensitisation and communication with those not physically present.  It has also been the strategy of the teams to sponsor live phone-in programmes on local community radio stations a day before the public meetings where listeners are able to contribute to the debates and seek clarifications on issues that they may not be very familiar with.

Taking note of the positive response from the MPs and local communities, the POP plans to make the “Meet Your MPs/Local Leaders” a permanent feature of province activities.  These discussions provide constituents easier access for engagement with their MPs at local venues rather than in Lusaka.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Communication: Provincial teams have not always maintained consistent communication with stakeholders due to the fact that many of them did not have permanent addresses during the period under review.  It is our hope that improvements will be made especially with the engagement of Provincial Facilitators.

Access to Information: Provincial teams continue to experience limitations in accessing information on debt and related issues from Government offices.  There is a sense of political sensitivity to information and government officers are not always keen to release information, especially that which relates to allocation, disbursement and utilization of HIPC resources.

Co-operation from Government: It has also been noticed by Provincial teams that there is some reluctance by government officials to attend some of our activities at the provincial level.  This reluctance again may be a sign of political sensitivity.

Overall, it is our hope that the POP is strengthened even further to effectively contribute towards empowering ordinary people and as such meet the development challenges effectively.