Key facts: Zambia

Last updated: August 2008

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DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Zambia

Governance | Health | HIV/AIDS | Education | Humanitarian/ social protection | Millennium Development Goals

This financial year, DFID will give around £40 million of development assistance
to Zambia. About two thirds of this will go towards Poverty Reduction Budget Support (PRBS), which we have been providing the government of Zambia since 2005.

Governance

Poor governance is a principal cause of poverty. People suffer when governments don’t allow participation in political life, provide access to justice, deliver adequate public services or control corruption. Serious problems with governance still exist in much of Africa but the overall situation is improving.

For example, in September 2006 the Zambian government began implementing a new public service management programme, the main goal of which is to improve the delivery of services for Zambian citizens and create an appropriate institutional environment for reducing poverty. To do this, it will focus on empowering citizens and clients to put legitimate pressure on Zambia’s public services to do better, as well as on measures such as employment and pay reform.

DFID is working with the Zambian government in the following areas:

• improving financial transparency of public funds by providing £15 million to the government’s Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Programme over five years
• supporting the Zambian Task Force Against Corruption, which recently pursued a successful action for £46 million against the ex-president and 16 other defendants in the UK high court
• working alongside other donors to support the government’s Anti- Corruption Commission, including funding the drafting of the National Corruption Prevention Policy and Strategy, which will embed anti-corruption initiatives in ministries by establishing an integrity office within each one
• co-operating with civil society, particularly on advocacy, strengthening the demand for good governance and making sure that the voices of the poor are heard
• supporting the Public Service Management Programme, which is designed to make government more efficient and responsive in managing public funds and delivering services
• providing £1.4 million to support a parliamentary reform programme to strengthen the ability of Zambia’s National Assembly to scrutinise the way government carries out its work and increase the accessibility of MPs to their constituents.
  

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Health

Some aspects of Zambia’s health care delivery have progressed, particularly in the areas of malaria control and treatment and getting people on to HIV treatment. However, improvement in child health has been modest, and maternal mortality is high (see Millennium Development Goals below).

The lack of trained health workers is one of the greatest challenges facing the Zambian health sector, which is managing with only 50% of the staff it needs to meet minimum standards. In addition, almost a third of rural facilities have no trained health workers at all. We have been supporting the Ministry of Health to implement its Human Resources Strategy to try to address these challenges.

Zambia is one of seven ‘first wave’ countries worldwide selected to join the International Health Partnership. This initiative aims to improve the way that international agencies, donors and poor countries work together to develop and implement health plans.

In early 2006, the Zambian government announced the removal of user fees for primary health care in rural areas, an important 'pro-poor' policy change. Through PRBS, DFID will provide $25 million over five years to help fund the 30% increase in demand that this policy has produced.

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HIV/AIDS

Zambia is experiencing one of the world’s most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics, with 17% of the adult population infected. DFID is working closely with other partners to help tackle this.

Our five-year £20 million programme supports the National AIDS Council, provides public commodities including condoms, helps to strengthen civil society and assists with HIV workplace programmes. We also have a CARE International partnership agreement, which includes an HIV- and AIDS-positive living component (£2 million over three years).

These efforts – combined with those of other donor partners, including the World Bank, the US government and the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria – have helped Zambia to achieve the following:

• 149,000 people receiving lifesaving anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment by August 2008 – 40% of the estimated need and a huge increase from the 3,000 who received treatment in 2003
• 39% of all HIV-positive expectant mothers receiving a full course of ARV treatment (2007).

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Education

Budget support (and growth in domestic revenues) helped the government increase spending on education from US$82 million to $400 million between 2000 and 2006. In addition, in 2007, external partners provided $68.5 million directly to support the education sector’s strategic plan. These combined efforts have helped Zambia to achieve the following:

• 94% of children enrolled in primary schools in 2006 (compared to 68% in 2000)
• an improvement in the ratio of girls in basic education compared with boys (gender parity index), from 0.93 in 2002 to 0.98 in 2006.
  

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Humanitarian relief and social protection

Some 51% of Zambia’s population are unable to meet basic food needs, and 45% of its children suffer from stunted growth, indicating chronic malnutrition.

Humanitarian relief helps people in years of extreme need – for example, when there are droughts or floods. But it does not help people who are hungry even in good years, nor does it protect them from becoming more vulnerable over time as a result of recurrent shocks – for instance, death of a breadwinner through AIDS or loss of crops to drought.

DFID is supporting the government of Zambia to develop and implement a national social protection policy to address chronic extreme poverty and hunger. This includes:

• funding pilots of a social cash transfer programme in five districts, which will give regular cash grants to more than 10,000 extremely poor households and will provide evidence to help the government make decisions on the design of a future national social assistance programme
• concluding a £10 million programme partnership agreement with CARE International to support civil society and government understanding of social protection, and to pilot innovative social protection approaches
• providing approximately £850,000 in 2007 for humanitarian relief, recovery and disaster risk reduction in response to severe flooding in Zambia. This assistance has included food and cash relief transfers, agricultural inputs for flood-affected farmers and supporting canal clearing to prevent future floods.

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Progress towards Millennium Development Goals

While the government of Zambia is committed to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), only limited progress has been made.

MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Most recent figures show that the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty has decreased from 73% in 1998 to 64% in 2006. However, 51% of people are still not able to meet their daily food needs.

MDG 2: Achieve universal primary education
Zambia is performing well against the MDGs for universal primary education. Net enrolment rates have improved, from 68% in 2000 to 94% in 2005..

MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Despite the introduction of free basic education in 2002, many girls drop out before they complete primary school, largely due to poverty and the impact of HIV/AIDS on families.

MDG 4: Reduce child mortality
Child health has seen some very modest improvements, but it is unlikely that Zambia will meet this MDG.

MDG 5: Improve maternal health
Maternal mortality is high, mainly as a result of the lack of trained health workers in rural facilities and a lack of equipment, combined with poor transportation to and between health facilities.

MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
It appears that the HIV epidemic is not spreading: there are fewer new infections in 15- to 19-year-olds and the infection rate in adults has stabilised at around 17%. However, while prevention efforts are improving, only 40% of those who need anti-retroviral drugs are currently getting them.

MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Only 58% of the population have access to safe water, and only 52% are using improved sanitation facilities.

MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
In April 2007, donors agreed a Joint Assistance Strategy for Zambia (JASZ), which sets out how they will collectively support the implementation of the government’s plans for reducing poverty and improving growth. Donors and government have also agreed a 'division of labour', which specifies which donors will work in which sectors. This will reduce costs for the government, which can use the money freed by it to deliver better services.

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