Publications

GOVERNANCE AND ITS IMPACT ON FOOD SECURITY IN ZAMBIA

Why do we begin this conference on “Food Security, Social Mobilisation and Community Empowerment” with a discussion this morning about governance, prior to any in-depth discussion about more specific dimensions of the issue of food security? 

I believe that the topic of governance is central and offers a perspective, a framework, within which to view the other topics.  This is so because “governance” involves the three key elements of:

·         Popular participation

·         Transparency and accountability

·         Policy priorities

My remarks here this morning are influenced by two immediate events.  First, I just returned from four days in the Southern Province, where I had the chance to speak with many people about the serious problems facing people in our rural areas.  Widespread suffering from hunger and malnutrition, discouragement over the government’s agricultural policies, anger over the apparent lack of sensitivity on the part of elected officials: these are issues people talk strongly about, not in conferences like this but in the daily exchanges of village and compound life.  Second, I have just re-read, for the seventh or eighth time, the powerful pastoral statement of the Catholic Bishops of Zambia, released on Friday of last week, addressing the social crisis facing our country at this very moment.  I hope that this audience has had a chance to read and reflect on that statement.  Especially significant, I believe, is the call the Bishops make to the President of the Republic to recognise that the social crisis is as great a threat to the well-being of Zambia as is the situation in the DRC and Angola and indeed deserves much greater attention on his part to meeting this extremely serious challenge.

I want to associate the focus here on food security with another catch-phrase used widely in development circles these days, “sustainable livelihood.”  I do so because I believe that the sustainable livelihood approach, or SL, highlights very strongly the importance of good governance in order to enhance food security in Zambia now and in the future.

My understanding of “sustainable livelihood” can be summarised:

·         SL is the capability of people to make a living and improve the quality of their life without jeopardising the livelihood options of others, either now or in the future.

·         SL bridges the gap between macro policies and micro realities, highlighting the inter-linkages between livelihood systems at the micro level and the macro policies which affect these livelihoods.

·         SL enables policy action at the national level to be informed by the local livelihood reality.

In short, the sustainable livelihood approach involves the elements of governance, and indeed touches on many of the topics to be explored during the two days of this conference.

The topic of food security is not my speciality, and my understanding is limited to the rather simple definition that it means the ability to meet nutritious food needs at both the household and national levels.  But I personally have been enlightened by the study undertaken by colleagues of mine working with the SAP Monitoring Project of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, especially Mr. Sampa Joseph Kalungu.  In a recent issue of the SAP MONITOR (January-March 2000), Kalungu describes the impact of macro-policies under the Structural Adjustment Programmes on the micro-level of sustainable livelihoods.  (It is understandable why SAP is sometimes described in Zambia as “starve African people,” or “Satana ali pano!”

Let me briefly describe the elements of good governance and suggest some practical responses as related to enhancing food security.

1.      Popular participation: Good governance demands that government policies that of necessity must be put into place in order to promote a sustainable livelihood approach to food security must involve wide participation of civil society, especially representatives of those sectors of civil society most directly affected by the policies.  Many of you will already be familiar with the conditionalities imposed by international creditors on Zambia that require civil society participation in the securing of debt relief and in the preparation of the “Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper” (PRSP).  Food security policies are central to poverty reduction and hence government must involve civil society in a meaningful process in the design not simply in the approval of these policies.  I strongly encourage participants in this conference to get involved in this PRSP process through the opportunities the government has promised will be made available in the next few months.

2.      Transparency and accountability: While these two words are surely over-used in political rhetoric, they are just as surely under-used in policy realities.  Yet good governance that enhances food security definitely requires much more honesty and openness about policies such as the ill-fated Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (ASIP).  What happened to all the money spent in the past few years on ASIP?  Why are we continually hearing about “reviews and evaluations” and not about “effects and benefits” of this ASIP?  What concrete programmes does the government now plan that will effect the livelihood of ordinary citizens of Zambia?  It is clear that much more strict monitoring of budgetary allocations and actual expenditures on food security measures is essential if progress is to be made in meeting the needs of the people.  Again, I encourage participants to contact your local member of Parliament after this conference to demand that they raise these social issues when the National Assembly opens again in one month.

3.      Policy priorities: Certainly one of the most common governance issues facing Zambia is a clear statement of development plans that identifies major priorities.  I say this because keen analysis of our government’s policies reveals that the primary challenge facing us is not lack of resources but failure of priorities.  While it is true that resources are limited, it is even more true that resources can be found for things the government deems to be priorities.  We simply cannot accept the excuse that this government lacks resources to fund effective food security measures.  What it lacks is the willingness to put food security – or education, or health, or many other essential social policies – high on its list of priorities.  It seems that money can always be found for expensive vehicles or generous allowances or frequent foreign travel, but cannot be found for school books, hospital drugs, feeder roads or civil service salaries that allow for decent standards of living.  Again, I encourage participants here to make the issue of social priorities the key issue in the coming elections of 2001.  Examine the actual records as well as the proposed manifestoes of the various political parties that claim they can lead Zambia into social progress in this new millennium.

In conclusion, then, what is governance and how does it link to effective food security?  The title of this conference gives us the answer when it explicitly mentions “social mobilisation and community empowerment.”  For it will be through social mobilisation and community empowerment here in Zambia that we get the popular participation, transparency and accountability, and policy priorities --  that is, the good governance -- that will enhance a sustainable livelihood approach to food security.

Since I have had the advantage of being one of the first presenters in this two-day programme, I challenge this audience to ask the good governance questions of each of the other presenters, whatever their topic.  That is one sure way of guaranteeing that we have, not just another conference, but a positive forward step to the food security in Zambia that we all want!

Thank you.

19 June 2000 National Workshop of PAM and SID  
Mulungushi Conference Centre, Lusaka
Dr. Peter J. Henriot