Dear readers of the JCTR Bulletin,

For many years, for the whole of their life times, the majority of Zambian, Malawian and by and large the rest of African people have been unable to meet basic needs.  Basic needs in the form of decent housing, food, clothing, access to quality education and health care, etc.  Certainly a number of reasons account for this state of affairs.  By and large the reasons have included a prevalence of non-performing political systems that have given birth to incapable and irresponsible leaders.  This non-performing political system has also found expression in misplaced national resources which together with some international factors such as the huge debt and imbalances in global social, political and economic governance have resulted in economies in Africa that have failed to respond to the needs of the people.

But it is also true that there had been and continues to be some elements of an attitude towards work that have not helped in ensuring that the social system becomes a lubricant in enhancing human welfare.  One would also argue that our education system in addition to just being wrong in some ways has not blended well or responded accordingly to societal challenges.  Our education has not found fundamental expression in our society.

While these problems have been in existence, there has not been an absence of blue-prints, in some cases well thought out blue-prints.  For example, Zambia has had a series of national plans from the time of Independence, especially from the period following the 1974 oil crisis and a decline in copper prices that set in motion Zambia’s socio-economic problems.  For the plans just after Independence the focus was on expanding opportunities for the people.  But the plans after the oil crisis focused mainly on redressing the poor economic performance.

What is coming out clearly in as far as Zambia’s efforts at socio-economic redress and improving the welfare of the people is the lack of commitment to effective implementation of its plans.  This problem has sadly been with us for a long time now.  In 1981, seven years into Zambia‘s economic difficulties, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) published a report entitled Basic Needs in an Economy Under Pressure: Findings of an ILO/Jobs and Skills Programme for Africa.  What is striking in that report, especially as it relates to Zambia’s current efforts of fighting poverty, was the following recommendation on priorities for implementation of programmes in an economy facing many challenges.  The report said:

The main issue is implementation because our analysis suggests that the fault is not with Zambia’s stated objectives or basic policies (sectoral programmes) but with the process of implementation – turning plan into action, and especially maintaining priorities at a time when lack of resources prevents more than a fraction of the plan’s programmes being implemented.  Our view of the Third National Development Plan, and of the President’s own statement of 1968 of basic needs in Zambia and how they should be met by 1980, leaves us in no doubt that the goals of the Plan and many of its projects and programmes are in absolutely right direction – more clearly so, we might add, than in the published plans or statements of national economic objectives of many other countries.  The problem lies in setting and maintaining priorities day-by-day and month-by-month in relation to the various constraints – economic, financial, administrative and political, which have held back action and implementation.

The cited problems of implementation and that of setting and maintaining priorities are with us today as they were in the initial attempts at improving lives of the Zambian people.  What seems different though is the depth of the problem now, both in terms of widespread and deep poverty and the extent of the problem of commitment to effective implementation of the programmes compared to the early eighties.  What may be recommended now is a more robust approach to setting and maintaining of priorities and commitment to effective implementation of programmes.

Zambia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), a current national blue print of addressing Zambia’s poverty problems, has already suffered the problem of lack of effective implementation.  This problem has particularly been visible in the inadequate and ineffectively disbursed resources to poverty fighting programmes.

Like the ILO report further stated, provision of basic needs is a high form of human investment, leading to what we are now calling social capital formation.  Other than facilitating effective participation of citizens in national development, access to basic needs by households results in better child nutrition, health and education.  For JCTR, investing in human beings will remain an all-time high national, economic, political and social priority.  That is why the JCTR Basic Needs Basket remains critical to raising questions in light of this endeavour.

Muweme Muweme
Editor