Effective Lobby and Advocacy Forum

61 out of 72 Councils attended the Local Government Association of Zambia’s (LGAZ) 2005 Annual Conference. This year’s theme was: Decentralisation and Emerging Social Challenges to Local Governance, HIV/AIDS and Poverty Reduction.

By Jesper Elias Lauridsen, Development Worker, Kafue District Council

During the official opening of the LGAZ’ 49th Annual Conference held in Livingstone, a visibly impressed Vice President, Hon. Lupando Mwape, noted that a total of 61 out of 72 City-, Municipal-, and District Councils were in attendance.

Part of the conference was devoted to discussing the National Decentralisation Policy in general and its implementation in particular. The delegates emphasised that the voices of the people must be heard and respected in the process of developing sub-district structures. Furthermore, they stressed the need to provide a legal framework for the implementation of the decentralisation policy.

Implementation plan for decentralisation

In his presentation, the representative from the Decentralisation Secretariat informed the delegates that the draft 5-year implementation plan for decentralisation was currently being discussed with the Ministry of Local Government and Housing. (Since the LGAZ meeting the National Implementation Plan for Decentralisation has been finalised). Some key components of the implementation plan are:
(i) community sensitisation on the decentralisation policy;

(ii) review of the existing legal framework;

(iii) human resource capacity building in local government;

(iv) fiscal decentralization to improve resource mobilisation; and

(v) institutionalisation of a monitoring and evaluation system.

In recognition of the substantial discussion, the former Minister of Local Government and Housing, Hon. Sylvia Masebo, extraordinarily offered the delegates to provide their comments to the draft implementation plan before it goes to Cabinet in its final form. In addition, she stated that “the input from Local Government is the way to success for Central Government”.

The Livingstone Declaration

In his opening speech the Vice President of the Republic of Zambia urged the delegates to come up with resolutions and recommendations for a smooth implementation of the decentralisation policy. Accordingly, the Council representatives adopted the ‘Livingstone Declaration on Decentralisation’ which touches upon:

(i) the need for Government to introduce a decentralisation bill to Parliament;

(ii) the need for further capacity building at district level; and
(iii) approved guidelines for ADCs.

Apart from the adoption of executive and standing committee reports, the remainder of the conference tackled the emerging social challenges to local governance, HIV/AIDS and poverty reduction. Subsequently, there were four interesting keynote addresses and fruitful plenary discussions on the topics of: the Fundamentals of Local Government; Local Economic Development; Local Government Responses to HIV/AIDS and; Fiscal Decentralisation and Local Government Finance.

LGAZ as lobby & advocacy forum

In his closing remarks the President of LGAZ, Col. J. B. C. Kabungo thanked the delegates for their valuable contributions and noted the high level of attendance. From what I observed in Livingstone, LGAZ owns great potential as a lobby and advocacy forum and must consequently utilize it to influence the decision-making process at Central Government level. This was the case at the 49th LGAZ Annual Conference in Livingstone from 21st to 24th June 2005.