Promotion of Social Justice and Concern for the Poor.

Widespread poverty in Zambia has bred a dangerous environment where workers are willing to tolerate severe abuse from employers in fear of losing what little ndalama they bring home at each month end.  The unjust treatment of employees in Zambia is widespread in its prevalence and diverse in its appearance.  There are domestic workers across the country earning just K50,000 per month for 12 to 18 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week.  There is a mine in the Copperbelt with just 70 permanent, unionised employees and 1800 “casual workers” on short-term contracts with limited benefits.

[Third Quarter 2005] Zambia's Constitutional Review: What sort of principles and issues? PDF

The JCTR’s analysis of the Interim Report and Draft Constitution submitted to the public by the Mung’omba Commission reveals some issues with which we agree with and some issues with which we disagree.  What follows here in this Policy Brief is the formal submission made to the CRC with explanations for our comments and recommendations.  As can be seen from the text, our submission is clearly based upon the set of values that we have earlier made explicit.  

[First Quarter 2005] Zambia’s unaffordable cost of basic needs: Policy responses to remedy this systemic evil PDF
 It goes without thorough and deep reflection that Zambia’s longstanding problem of the unaffordable cost of basic needs should be one of the top most policy debates in 2005.  The cost of goods and services in society is such a critical factor in shaping people’s general welfare, for example, as it influences how households and individuals relate to education, health, food, shelter, energy, water and sanitation, even agricultural production!  Cost of living is a broad quality of life indicator as a primary determinant of how many meals a household will have in a given day and how many children will be in school!

[Third & Fourth Quarter 2004] Zambia's Economic, Social & Cultural rights & the ConstitutionPDF
But what are these rights? Why are they important for Zambia? What implications and obligations result from Zambia’s previous ratification of international and regional covenants? Does Zambia have adequate resources to meet basic rights such as food, housing, clean water, education and health services?

Considerable discussion – and considerable confusion – has raged in recent months about Zambia’s “reaching the HIPC completion point.”  When will this really happen?  What will it mean? Will the people of Zambia benefit?  What will be the long-term effects?  Why have negotiations been secret?  What difference will it make for future debts?

[First & Second Quarter 2003] Zambia's poverty eradication: Why and what set of principlesPDF
Poverty is multi-dimensional, embracing deprivations of income, access to services, voice in decision-making, etc.  From the outset, it is important to be analytically very clear that poverty is a sign, a symptom of something very wrong in human society.  And it is also a cause, an influence that perpetuates an unacceptable situation in human society.  What does that mean?

[First Quarter 2002] Current Development ChallengesPDF
Over the years, Zambia's development situation has not faired well in almost all dimensions. People's living conditions have continued to worsen, with the rural population the worst affected. Economic growth figures have not matched with reductions in poverty. Zambia is currently ranked 143 out of 162 countries -- the same as in the previous year -- on the UNDP Human Development Index that measures average achievement in three basic dimensions: a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living. This means that Zambia has remained static on these measurements.