Quarterly Bulletin

Bulletin 77
3rd Quarter 2008

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Readers,

            It is becoming more evident that politics has a great influence in good governance and even bad governance in Zambia today. This year, Zambia lost a President, Dr. Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, SC, who died on 19 August and since then, we have been apprehensive about the manner (process) a new president will be elected (elections to be held on 30 October 2008) and the criteria of such a process. Notwithstanding the many concerns various stakeholders have been echoing, making sure that a good president is elected in a credible manner, is crucial if good governance will reign in Zambia and the wellbeing of the people protected and promoted.

At JCTR this year, we are celebrating the 20th Anniversary of our existence in Zambia. The Centre that began in 1988 as mainly an in-house Jesuit Project has grown to four fully functional programmes; the Debt, Aid and Trade Programme, Social Conditions Programme, Church Social Teaching Programme, and the Outreach Programme. These programmes respond to the different aspects of social justice by highlighting macroeconomic issues of debt, aid and trade; microeconomic issues of how well households access basic needs; looking for ways of how values can influence and help in politics, the social sector and economics; and taking similar interventions in other provinces of Zambia through the Outreach Programme.

As part of these celebrations, in this issue (as will be the case in the Fourth Quarter Bulletin), we have an article dealing with what was the original vision of the JCTR and how that vision has changed over the last twenty years to include general governance and development interventions in Zambia and Malawi based on the values of the social teaching of the Church.

The death of President Mwanawasa could mean a lot of things to Zambia’s development. These things are what many Zambians and non-Zambians have referred to as “legacies of President Mwanawasa” that ought to be carried forward by the next president. Key to JCTR concerns and the concerns of the many Zambians are the constitutional making process, the fight against corruption, and working towards good governance. Although the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) has been highly controversial seeing some sectors of society boycotting the process and others blaming the whole process as window-dressing coming up with nothing substantially different, the question of coming up with a good constitution has been at the heart of every Zambian. With the coming presidential by-elections, it remains to be seen whether such a process will continue especially if a different government comes into power. The fight against corruption, hailed in the media, definitely must continue given that so many development and governance problems are caused by corruption.

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) -- a process that is intended to review, assess, and come up with possible solutions to governance problems -- might suffer if the coming president of Zambia is not committed to such a process. It is clear that development in Zambia or anywhere else, should never depend on personalities or parties that are in power but should be an independent agenda that can continue even with change of persons or parties in government. The “periodical” type of Constitutions (4) that Zambia has had in the past 44 years since independence in 1964 should come to an end with a good Constitution that really is a “people’s Constitution.” We need development that can last the “test of time” to borrow the popular phrase used in the debates of having a new Constitution in Zambia.

These many concerns, at the heart of development and lifting up the lives of the people for the better, run through the articles in this Bulletin. Sharing with you the original vision of the JCTR 20 years ago and how it has been perceived by the founding fathers shows that dignity of the human person and what that entails to the wellbeing of persons is key to a good full human life. Other articles raise concerns about how resources ought to be distributed, how human rights should be promoted, how governance systems ought to work, how to relate to the environment, and how well to live in a society together in peace through reconciliation. These are key issues debated in this Bulletin.

It is our hope at JCTR that development strategies and governance systems will be as inclusive as possible with much more focus at localising such strategies to communities where people live. The question of rural development, although not prominent in this current issue, deserves special mention especially in taking rural development seriously and finding strategies that are helpful to people in rural communities to live their lives with dignity. We encourage you our readers to comment on the many issues raised in this Bulletin and other issues that are important for better development and governance processes.

Dominic Liche
Editor

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