The long awaited 2017 Annual Budget for Zambia was presented on November the 11th. Despite Zambia experiencing rapid economic growth, many Zambians are yet to have seen their economic situations improving.
One of the major changes for taxpayers is the increase of the non-taxable income threshold by 10% to K3300.00 which, while welcome, is below the rise in the cost of living. This will hit us hard, particularly as the price of fuel has also been increasing since October.
The 5 Pillars
In his budget, the Finance Minister introduced 5 pillars called Zambia Plus to help address ‘economic imbalances’. The aim of Zambia Plus is to improve revenue collection, to enable the country to afford some social protection, promote transparency and good governance, to control public expenditure by adhering to budget lines, thus providing economic stability.
I can’t help but notice that this has the fingerprints of the usual suspects on it, namely the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB)! Twice my pre-arranged meetings at the Ministry have been cancelled by them. They are apparently going to fund service training for Maths and Science teachers, look at the textbook chain and build some rural Primary schools (Proof that nowadays even the World Bank needs to showcase corporate social responsibility!).
Education
Within the Education Sector, the main focus is to complete infrastructure developments. Over 6000 teachers are needed to fill open places and to reduce the high pupil-teacher ratio. Grants will be replaced by student loans and a public-private Skills Development Fund established for entrepreneurial vocational education.
Small and Medium Enterprise.
As well as offering greater social protection, there are moves to improve matters for small and medium enterprises with a Credit Guarantee which offers credit at more affordable interest rates. Irrigation is to be helped to increase the production of non-traditional exports such as cotton, rice and soya beans. The aim is to create 100,000 decent jobs.
Water and Sanitation
Many Zambians do not have access to safe drinking water or decent toilet facilities. There is therefore an objective to increase rural access to safe drinking water from the current 51% to 55% and to raise the amount of households having toilets. There is also a bid to promote recycling and waste-to-energy innovations.
Health
Construction and upgrading of health facilities continues with the recruitment and training of frontline health personnel. Ida has spent the last two days queueing in the courtyard of the Ministry of Health with paperwork for the recruitment of staff for the UCZ Health Institutions, along with thousands of other youngsters hoping to get on the Government payroll. The procurement of drugs and medical equipment is another priority, as is the opening of universal compulsory health coverage by a Social Health Insurance Scheme. Provincial satellite cancer centres are planned.
Social and Economic Support
The Social Cash Transfer Scheme is a Government of Zambia programme aimed at reducing extreme poverty and the inter-generational transfer of poverty. It will now extend to 500,000 households, up from 24,000, and the monthly amount of money given will increase by 28%. The Food Security Pack Programme will reach 40,000 vulnerable farmers, up from 30,000. The Public Welfare Assistance Scheme for Health and Education will help 134,000 poor and vulnerable. The School Feeding Programme will be increased from 1 million to 1.25 million pupils. The Women’s Development Programme is now reaching 7,000 women will add 25,000 women each year for the next 3 years, and will provide free sanitary towels to schools in peri-urban and rural areas. That is a summary and round-up of the Social Sector.
The Cost of Living
We regularly follow the Zambian Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) which keeps a monthly tally of the cost of a shopping basket of basic commodities, known as a Basic Needs Basket, for a family of five in various cities nationwide.
The cost of living for Lusaka as measured by the JCTR Basic Needs Basket (BNB) for an average Zambian family of five has hit a first time high: ZMW5,036.28 (£405.59) in the month of October 2016. The price of mealie meal, beans, green-leafy vegetables, cooking oil, bread, sugar, tea and charcoal have all gone up. The other major economic concern of many Zambians is the expected increase in the price of electricity so that it becomes more ‘cost-reflective’.
Life is difficult at the moment for city and town-dwellers who are struggling with little or no inflation level pay-rises. Often they come home from work to no power and water. This means cooking on charcoal and doing washing at unusual times to make use of the water when it is available. There is a familiar ZESCO advert on power-saving that the ZNBC TV. broadcasts which uses the slogan: Let’s tekanya (let’s get prepared, let’s organise ourselves) and that’s what most Zambians uncomplainingly, resourcefully and almost fatalistically are doing ready for hard times ahead….
Between 07.30 and 08.00am David and Florence arrive. At the moment David has just finished building our garden shed. He is now plastering the office, laundry room and shed, and laying Kariba stone paving around the house to help keep the red dust at bay.
Much of the morning is taken up with making and receiving telephone calls, answering emails, drafting memos, minutes, reports and project proposals, and meeting with people who have made appointments. Both of us are busy consolidating policy documents. The United Church of Zambia (UCZ) is constructing a new office block at Woodlands, which is about 3 kilometres away. As such, the Departments who were stationed there have moved temporarily to Synod, and naturally the Health department is squatting with Education.
ill Gates was part of a special session which discussed accelerating the decline of the burden and incidence of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and offered his perspective on the HIV Treatment revolution and the need for creative new thinking in prevention. He warned that ‘the largest generation in history is entering an age when they are more at risk from HIV.’ The success of high uptake and self-reporting of oral prep by Afro-American males was reported. Elton John also made an appearance on Wednesday. He apparently reminded all that without inclusion and respect for human rights no amount of scientific progress can end Aids.
need. Early ART for infants is very important. They can live a normal life if early suppression takes place. If tested for HIV the results are negative but if ARVs are stopped rebound can be fatal within 2-3 weeks. In another case, an HIV+ adult male with cancer was treated with a bone marrow transplant and cured of HIV. Research continues with early initiation and viral suppression along with bone marrow transplants. Prince Harry, Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and Elton John spent time talking with the youth.
ased contingent all dressed in black in solidarity with the 1 in 3 women worldwide who face violence in their lives, in protest against all systems, cultures and societies that promote any form of violence, in mourning for all who are harmed or killed by sexual violence and to raise awareness and knowledge of SGBV, in the hope of the possibility of a different reality for all those affected.
Friday: The plenary was addressed by Dr Dorothy Mbori from UNICEF Nigeria who again highlighted the failure to test babies early enough and the challenge presented by 15-19 year old adolescents; this cohort has the highest rate of infection at the moment. There was need for only one Health Record per person for life. VCT needed to be expanded to include everyone. Integrated Community based service programmes needed to be available at community-level. Churches ,too, should increase VCT services to all congregants, especially those getting married and those pregnant. Youth-friendly services should be more widely available. Testing within hospitals should be universal and every admission should be tested.
The closing session contained the Rapporteurs Report which included the Global Village followed by closing remarks various dignitaries. The South African Minister of Health rightly warned against complacency and others protested that criminalisation of key populations will not end Aids. Silence leads to death. We looked ahead to AIDS 2018 in Amsterdam. 15800 people participated.
This took place on Tuesday evening at Roman Catholic Emmanuel Cathedral in Central Durban which has served the community since 1902. It has a well-known ministry to the poor and in doing so, cooperates with people of all faith traditions, with a clinic, feeding programme, vocational and educational training and support, as well as pastoral outreach; treating all people as children of the one God. Much of the inspiration for this work came from the former Archbishop Denis Hurley who was a renowned champion of justice and peace and a fierce opponent of apartheid. The Cathedral is situated in the busiest, most vibrant and ethnically diverse part of Durban, standing cheek by jowl with a Mosque, markets and minibus station. Rev Aftab Gohar, Rev Daniel Ganizane, Mubita and I attended on behalf of the Church of Scotland, the Evangelical Church of Christ in Mozambique, the Methodists and United Church of Zambia
The Cathedral Choir sang Zulu choruses as a prelude while we gathered and then they sang the Introit: Make me a Channel of Your Peace before we were welcomed by Sister Alison Munro.
Monday morning, Mandela Day, was taken up by a march organised by TAC (Treatment For All Campaign). Being a BRIS(Middle Income) Country South Africa has to pay the full price for ARVs demanded by the world pharmaceutical giants and cannot rely on generics like Zambia. Zambia also has its ARVs paid for by PEPFAR and Global Funding. South Africa has a very limited form of National Health Service which makes health care very expensive and there is a lack of access for many individuals to treatment and care. There are now 35 million people living with AIDS globally, there are 2 million new infections each year and around 1.2 million people died in 2014 of AIDS related causes.
As an aside the following improvements in service delivery need to be undertaken. it is vital to find out what patients need not what is convenient for the Health Worker. A reduction in the frequency of clinics that a healthy HIV+ client need attend should be reduced to a minimum, accessing their drugs through their local Community Health worker. VCT needs to be more widely available so that all may know heir status.
On Friday we walked down to the Durban Exhibition Centre where a series of marquees across the road by Central Park served as the Registration Centre and the Shuttle Terminus. We recrossed the footbridge to the Exhibition Halls and the Global Village which were being set out and bumped into Bateuke Waklisiku from the Catholic Medical Mission Board. We then took Mubita to the beach, and got to work with bucket and shovel on the sand.
stressed the important role that local partners play in response to treatment and support. There was also a moving testimony from Melodie Jongwe a young mother who is HIV+ and whose son was also born HIV+. Melodie knew nothing of the disease and it was only when both mother and child contracted blisters that she returned to the clinic where her positive status was confirmed. She called on the Church for greater commitment to ends AIDS as a matter of Justice. It is sobering to reflect that 75% of all new infections are in adolescent girls. It was very disappointing that no Zambian data was available as the local CDC had not responded with an agreement
It was also good to meet up with Church of Scotland colleagues and partners who were there; Rev Aftab Gohar from Grangemouth and Rev Daniel Ganizane from Mozambique.
adolescents, women and girls are vulnerable groups at present. The role of the home, family and Church family was emphasized in tackling stigma. Churches should be safe places that encourage inter-generational and intersectional conversations. Topics for discussion should include sex, sexuality, gender and violence. Youth sensitive clinics for sex education and information were also a necessity in the struggle to attain an AIDS-free generation. Though in all of this where are the men? There is a lack of balance here and questions need to be asked about the socialisation of boys and young men who perpetuate gender-based violence.