1. Introduction
Two years have elapsed since we together last assembled in a forum like this one. What has happened in the last two years? Put bluntly, the situation has worsened. Zambia is in deep crisis. As Civil Society, we are united in our conviction that the crisis currently engulfing Zambia is not only an economic crisis but also a political and social crisis. It is a crisis of unprecedented and unacceptable proportions manifested in the tripod of deprivation, debt and disease.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the state of human development in Zambia is dismal: average life expectancy at birth for a Zambian is now 37 years ; national adult HIV Prevalence rate is almost 20 percent; formal sector employment is only 11 percent of the total labour force; The incidence of poverty has risen from 70 percent in 1996 to 73 percent in 1998 while the percentage of female-headed households forced to engage in coping strategies is at 32 percent. Meanwhile, the infant mortality rate is at a high of 112 per 1000 live births.
With this background, drastic measures are required if Zambia is to get on course towards poverty reduction as well as achieving International Development Goals(IDGs). A number of barriers will need to be overcome.
The purpose of this presentation is to discuss some of these barriers, specifically those of a cross-cutting nature and point to priorities for development assistance within this context. Admittedly, cross-cutting issues are very broad but for the purpose of our presentation we call focus to HIV/AIDS, Gender, employment and sustainable livelihoods, Youth and Child development , Disability issues and the environment. We discuss these issues within the poverty reduction agenda and make some references to the International Development Targets(IDTs) promulgated by the Millennium Declaration to which Zambia is a signatory. We think that key International Development Goals must be embraced in Zambia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper( PRSP).
The presentation is organised as follows: the next section discusses the cross-cutting issues highlighted above. The last section concludes the presentation.
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