A VALUE AND ETHICAL FRAMEWORK CRITICAL TO DESIGNING DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

February  2004

Development policies, strategies, etc., should at all times be central to the humanity question and must be cognizant of the fact that humanity is an end and a means to achieving that development.  Critically this means that there must always be a value and ethical framework to policy formulation and evaluation.  This observation is made by the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) in the light of   Zambia  ’s continued experience of poor living conditions and current efforts at improving people’s lives.

According to the JCTR monthly Basic Needs Basket report for  Lusaka, the cost of food and other essential non-food items such as decent housing, water, wash and bath soap, energy, etc., for the month of February is K1,078,750.  For the month of January it was K1,065,900.  This cost of basic needs means that a decent standard of living is beyond the majority of households in  Zambia.

“If at all both successive Governments of the Republic of Zambia and its cooperating partners have over the years assumed an approach of a value and ethical framework, would Zambia ’s development misfortunes be to the way they are?”  Asks Muweme Muweme, Coordinator of the Social Conditions Research Project of the JCTR.

To use a value and ethical framework would mean being compelled not to accept the status quo where most of the people, especially the poor are denied access to a decent standard of living.  This obviously has direct and serious political implications today, for example, in the negotiations over the elusive “HIPC completion point.”

Both national governments and the international community have over the years set targets of uplifting people’s welfare but those targets have by no means been achieved.  According to Muweme, “It must be recognized that development, understood as the progression of people from less human conditions to more human conditions, cannot and should not be delayed.  A delay in development means lack of food, increases in the incidence of HIV/AIDS, lack of access to health and education, and generally unacceptable suffering of the people.  To delay development is not to value people’s lives and to destroy the prospects for a peaceful future of the country.”