• ActionAid
• Focus areas of our work
  • Building local democracy
  • Fighting corruption
  • Conflict management
  • Land rights
  • Trade justice
  • Gender equality
  • Youth for development
• How we work
  • Civil society and partnerships
  • Personnel assistance
• Countries we work in
  • Central America
  • Kenya
  • Middle East
  • Mozambique
  • Nepal
  • Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe
• Examples and results
  • Partner stories
  • Personal stories
• The organisation
  • Vision and mission
  • Association and board
  • Corporate documents

Support for real local democracy for Zambia's poor

Zambia got independence in 1964, and the country's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, led the country as a one-party state until 1991, when a multi-party system was introduced. But in reality, Zambia's democracy is still not working very well. Decisions are primarily made by the ruling party elite, while parliament and district authorities have very little say on matters of planning and budgeting. Theoretically, the citizens have been allowed to influence the planning process through a decentralisation reform, which was launched in 2004, but there is still a great lack of structures that can effectively give citizens a more direct influence on the decision-making processes.

MS's work in Zambia

MS has been working in Zambia since 1968, and the aim has always been to provide the poor with the power and abilities necessary to improve their own situation. Before 2002 our work focused on creating income generating activities and from 2002 to 2006 we supported the agricultural sector, democracy and good Governance and natural resource management.

Today, we focus on two themes: Building local democracy and land rights. We support the poor and marginalized groups in their right to participate in local decision-making processes and in their access to land, with a special focus on women and the youth. In all our activities gender equality and fighting corruption are important elements. Geographically we work in three of Zambia's nine provinces: Eastern and Luapula, which are among the poorest rural provinces and Lusaka Province, which has large poor urban areas.

Local Democracy

One of the most important reasons for poverty in Zambia is the population’s lack of influence on the decision-making process and hence their own livelihood.
 
Zambia consists of nine provinces and is divided into 72 districts. The districts are run by local councils which are supposed to control the public service delivery in the area. But the present laws lack proper guidelines on how the councils can finance these services. The government does not, for instance, have to commit itself to paying regular amounts at specified times to the councils. On top of this, many services, such as education and health, are still controlled centrally, under the jurisdiction and administration of a politically appointed District Commissioner chosen by the government. Moreover, the Minister of Local Government and Housing has the power to disband the councils, even though the councillors are elected representatives of the people.

In 2004, a decentralization policy was launched with the goal of shifting power to local councils over the next decade, and at the same time ensure the population's increased influence on decisions and priorities. However, the implementation of the decentralization policy is moving very slowly, in part because the government is reluctant to transfer power and money to local councils, some of which are controlled by opposition parties.

To strengthen the influence of the poor and develop local democracy MS works on several levels.

Small scale farmers assert their rights

Organisation is the first step towards claiming your rights. It is difficult to participate in a democratic society, if you stand alone with your problems and do not know of the existing possibilities for participation. In Zambia, MS is working at the grassroots level, cooperating with seven small scale farmer organisations. These organisations provide a forum where farmers can learn about better methods of cultivation and new crops. Simultaneously, they can reach out to markets and customers that individual farmers would have trouble finding on their own. The farmers’ organisations seek to influence local government by sitting in on local committees and have influence on national policies through the organisation FOSUP, which can lobby on their behalf at national level.

Civil society umbrella organisations

Civil society organisations play an important role in democracy because they can act as independent watchdogs, monitoring the government and reminding it to take the opinions and rights of poor people into account when national policies are formulated. MS is working with three major umbrella organizations, each of which plays an important strategic role in influencing the government in the right direction. Civil Society for Poverty Reduction works through its many member organisations countrywide with budget tracking, to ensure that local budgets reflect people's wishes and that money earmarked for local development projects are actually spent for that purpose. Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Conflict examines the policies that may create conflicts in the community and collect evidence of how poor people's rights are overlooked. Zambia Council for Social Development organizes civil society organizations in a common forum so they can better formulate their demands of the government and have a greater impact when doing so. 

Advocating for decentralisation

Local democracy demands that ordinary citizens have a means of influencing the decision making process. This influence ranges from voting in national elections to participating in local level committees, where it is decided which local development projects will be implemented. While the national and local structures for participation do to some degree exist, there is a huge information gap with regards to the citizens’ knowledge of these opportunities. MS supports Anti Voter Apathy Project in mobilising people to register as voters and several of our partners, among them Caritas, carry out awareness campaigns at local village level, about how the decentralisation policy can improve people's influence on local matters. At the national level, advocacy campaigns to further the decentralisation process are being undertaken by Zambia Council for Social Development. MS has also created three “Knowledge and Strategy teams”, consisting of different partner representatives, development workers as well independent consultants in order to coordinate the efforts and effectiveness of MS partners working with decentralisation.

Women and Youth empowerment

Women and youth are among the most vulnerable groups in the Zambian society, mainly because traditions and customs to a large degree do not cater for their needs at all. MS supports several women and youth associations, who work towards including these groups in the decision making process and establish gender equality. Young people and women are trained in decision-making, leadership skills, human rights and advocacy and thus empowered to take charge of their lives. Many of our partners also engage in practical skills training, helping these groups to improve their livelihood and develop economic independence. At national policy level, Young Women's Christian Association are actively advocating for women's rights.

Land rights

Most Zambians live of subsistence farming. If a family loses the right to cultivate their land, they lose the foundation of their existence.

In Zambia there are two kinds of land; State land and customary land. State land is administered by the government, while customary land is administered by the local chiefs, who rule in their own, historically agreed upon areas. Officially, 6 % of Zambia’s area is state land, while 94 % is customary. However, these numbers are based on calculations from colonial times and date back to 1955. Since that time about 30 % of the land has been turned into nature reserves, and urbanization as well as industrialization of the mining industry has decreased the available land areas even more. However, most small scale farmers are still living on traditional land today.

The administration of the two types of land is badly coordinated and in some areas even contradictory, which causes conflicts, corruption and increasing speculation in land. For instance, there are no written laws regulating customary land and no formal registration of an individual's rights to land in the customary system. If a private investor wishes to buy customary land, a chief can sell the land without consulting the families, who live of the land, because presently the chiefs have complete authority over its distribution. And should a woman lose her husband, she does not automatically have the right to inherit the family’s plot of land. This often means that widows are left without means of supporting their children. Meanwhile, state land administration is centralised and bureaucratic and state land is too expensive to rent for most ordinary farmers. It generally takes anywhere between 2-4 years to acquire a title deed.

The non-transparent and discriminating rules, along with increasing speculation, makes it very difficult for the poorest to access and keep land. That is why land rights are an important focus area in order to secure the survival and livelihood of the poor population of Zambia. MS supports Zambia Land Alliance in its efforts to improve the current management of the land and in working for a registration system for customary land. The Alliance has branches in the provinces, where associations of local NGO's train and inform people about land rights and provide legal assistance to those struggling with land issues.

MS and Action Aid merger in Zambia

The country programmes of MS and ActionAid Zambia will be merged before the summer of 2010, following MS's membership of ActionAid International. The process involves merging our country programme strategy and themes with those of ActionAid. While the names of our focus areas will change to “governance” and “food security”, there will, however, not be any substantial changes to the way the programme strategy will be carried out, and all present partner organisation contracts – most of which run until 2011 – will be honoured. In practical terms, we expect to move in together at the same premises – being those presently occupied by MS - by July 2009.

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Documents