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DFID Zambia
British High Commission, PO Box 50050, 15101 Ridgeway, Lusaka, Zambia
Tel:+260 1 251164 | Fax:+260 1 253
Map courtesy of the FCO
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Zambia
Related pages: Zambia and the International Health Partnership
Overview
Almost two-thirds of the population in Zambia live on less than $1 a day,
that is around 7.5 million people. Death and ill health as a result of HIV and
AIDS is high and maternal mortality has risen in recent years. However, overall
poverty levels have improved in recent years; the poverty rate has fallen
from 73% in 1998 to 68% in 2004. Net enrolment rates for primary education
are improving and
literacy is rising, immunisation coverage is increasing, child death
rates are falling and there is a rapid roll out of treatment for people with HIV
infection. It is estimated that 130,000 Zambians are currently receiving
anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), an increase from just 3,000 in 2003.
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Economic and Political Summary
The Republic of Zambia gained independence from the UK in 1964. After nearly
two decades of one party rule, multiparty democracy was introduced in 1991 and
the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), led by the trade unionist
Frederick Chiluba, swept to power. After a promising start by the new MMD
government, living standards and political freedom declined from 1997. Chiluba's
attempt to change the constitution, in order to stand for a third presidential
term, provoked a political crisis in 2001 and consequently pressured him into
the decision not to put himself forward for re-election. Levy Mwanawasa was
elected president of Zambia in a widely disputed election result at the end of
2001. President Mwanawasa won a second term in government in the parliamentary
and presidential elections held in September 2006. These elections were regarded
as the most professionally run since the introduction of multi-party democracy
Over recent years, spurred by growth in the mining, construction and
transport sectors, Zambia’s economic performance has improved and the
economy is enjoying sustained growth of around 5.5% per annum. Zambia has
received extensive debt relief as a consequence of the
G8 meeting in Gleneagles and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).
Its external debt burden has been reduced from around $7.1 billion to $0.5
billion. This means that the money that would have been used to pay back
loans is now available to the Government to spend on health and education and
other priority sectors.
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DFID in Zambia
DFID’s primary aim in Zambia is to support the implementation of the
Government of Zambia’s Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP). The FNDP outlines the
country’s plans for reducing poverty and improving growth. DFID principally
contributes to:
- Improving the public financial management system and supporting the
Government’s fight against corruption;
- Reforming the public sector;
- Strengthening the health system;
- Providing an effective HIV and AIDS response;
- Supporting basic education service delivery;
- Enhancing social protection measures to improve the lives of the
poorest and reduce the impact
of damaging events such as drought or disease on vulnerable people.
DFID will provide £40 million of aid to Zambia during the 2007/08 financial
year. We estimate that 60% of our resources
will go through the Government’s budget, in the form of General Budget
Support which allows governments to determine how to best tackle poverty in
line with their national plans.
Donors are supporting the Government’s FNDP by implementing a Joint
Assistance Strategy for Zambia (JASZ) which sets out how donors will
collectively give support to Zambia’s national policies, plans and budgets. The
JASZ agrees on a few lead donors for each sector. This means the Government can
spend more time on its priorities and less time on meeting donors. DFID leads in
the areas of health, HIV and AIDS, governance, macroeconomics and social
protection. DFID has put a lot of effort in to improving the way donors work
with the Government in support of the
 Paris
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
DFID works alongside other donors to back the Zambian Government’s fight
against corruption through support to the Anti-Corruption Commission and the
Task Force on Corruption. The anti-corruption work looks both at prosecuting
those accused of corruption and improving systems to reduce opportunities for
corruption.
DFID also works with non governmental agencies to enable Zambians to engage
in poverty reduction policy discussions, hold the Government to account, and
allow the extremely vulnerable to participate in development processes
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Zambia and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Zambia is performing well against the MDGs in primary universal education and
promoting gender equality in schools. Net enrolment rates for primary
education have improved (from 63% in 2000 to 89% in 2005), but more needs to
be done if they are to be achieved by 2015. Despite the introduction of free
basic education in 2002, many girls and other vulnerable groups drop out of
school before they complete primary school, largely due to poverty, and the
impact of HIV and AIDS on families.
Good progress is being made in the fight against HIV and AIDS, malaria and
other diseases, with indications that the HIV epidemic appears not to be
spreading, and there are indications that there are fewer new infections in the
15-19 year old age group. HIV infection rates appear to have stabilised at
around 17% adult prevalence and the government, in partnership with the donor
community, is taking positive steps to prevent the spread of the disease and
fight its effects. Services are becoming more widely available for the
prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV with over 90% of the
districts having some PMTCT service sites. However while prevention efforts are
improving, more still needs to be done. There are currently around 130,000
Zambians on ARVs but this is only 40% of the estimated number of people who need
access to these.
However, current progress on the MDGs on poverty, hunger, child and
maternal mortality and environmental sustainability targets is poor.
Maternal mortality has increased from 649 per 100,000 between 1996-2000 to 729
per 100,000 between 2001-02, child hunger and deaths from AIDS are rising and
more than one in six children still dies before their fifth birthday. A big
effort is required if Zambia is to achieve these targets by 2015. A major
constraint to Zambia’s health system is the availability of health workers; one
third of all rural facilities are without a trained health worker
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Links
Updated 29 January 2008
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