The history of Zambia
Zambia at independence
The independence of Zambia in 1964 from the British left Zambia with an overabundance of copper reserves. These copper reserves together with the earnings from them stimulated a lot of wealth in the country. Zambia became the economic power house of the African region and as a result, a lot of labourers from neighbouring African countries began to move to Zambia for the employment opportunities presented by the. Despite this however, Zambia inherited from the colonial government a lot of social, political and economic problems hence the new government faced major challenges in trying to address these problems inherited from the colonial government.
These socio-economic challenges that Zambia faced impede the labour force of Zambia. Zambia as a result lacked individuals with the necessary skills and expertise needed for the overall development of the country. This also impacted negatively on governance in the country and the economy of the country because the necessary expertise to stimulate economic growth and development in the country were missing. The lack of trained human resource therefore presents a foundational problem for much of the errors in Zambia’s national administration and reforms which eventually presented a spill over effect to all other areas and sectors of the country.
The majority of the population in Zambia was largely rural because previously (under the colonial government) a lot of people were restricted from coming into town unless with a permit. When people could eventually move to the urban areas, people rushed to the city for a better access to opportunities. This resulted in demands beyond the control of the government which was already struggling. The rapid...
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...r debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative, reducing the payment burden on the Government by USD 6 Billion. The Government has worked diligently to establish the Vision 2030 plan and the Fifth National Development Plan which will guide economic development in the coming years.10
The Ministry of Community Development and Social Services implements social protection strategies in Zambia, and, while their funding amounts to less than 1 percent of the national budget, this is higher than the regional average of 0.25 percent of GDP for social assistance. Developed countries spend an average of 2.5 percent of GDP on social assistance. According to the Fifth National Development Plan, the allocation for social protection will increase from 63 billion Kwacha (USD 13,461,538.46) in 2006, to 75 billion Kwacha (USD 16,025,641.03) in 2010.11
... it needs (four thousand instead of the needed twelve thousand) and nearly ten percent of the doctors (three hundred instead of the needed three thousand) for a population of over fourteen million. Malawi is the perfect example for a show of how destructive the Structural Adjustment Programs can be for a developing country and how much power it can give to the IFIs that they (an outer entity) can overrule the demands of a sovereign government and can thus have far greater influence over a country’s economy and development than the country’s government itself.
Uganda, formally known as the Republic of Uganda, is a poverty stricken country plagued with economic instabilities. Since the 1980’s, the economy has remained on a fairly steady climb, but many have doubts about the continuation of growth. Uganda will never achieve a stable economy if they do not establish changes to their infrastructure. To implement these modifications and maintain economic progression, Uganda will need 1) better government determination to end corruption, 2) commitment to improve the weak educational reforms, and 3) a decrease in their export vulnerabilities. Fortunately, the country is experiencing a much needed evolution in telecommunication which could be the single most contributing factor for an improved economy.
...e senseless and heartless government, which ruthlessly destroys the peaceful atmosphere in the villages. Africa will only reach its potential when everybody realizes the importance of preserving the cultural traditions.
The preceding essay is just a synopsis of how it functioned for African’s in certain regions
At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became severe and the economy was close to collapsing. Poverty has become deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. This is a big contributor to the poverty Congo is experiencing today, because little has improved and won’t improve until these problems are fixed. Overall, Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty in the region.
...Lower Public Debt, Structural Reforms Critical, says IMF’, IMF Country Report. International Monetary Fund, Washington, D.C. No. 11/181.
Dr. Noah Zerbe is a professor and chair of the department of politics at Humboldt State University in California and someone who has spent time in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. Dr. Zerbe goes in depth into the factors that surrounded the 2002 famine in Africa, where 14 million Africans were on the brink of starvation. The Malawi president, just a season before the famine, sold off all of Mal...
...’s economy due to unfair policies. Instead, the Fund and Bank should provide the people of Zambia with economists and other professionals who could provide guidance and assistance to get the economy up and running. Secondly, Zambia needs to reinstate the tariff on used clothing to jump start the textile industry again. Thirdly, Zambia must above all else begin to seek professionals to educate their population, because as everyone knows, education is the most precious factor in getting out of poverty. It opens doorways that would otherwise be closed.In addition to these steps, Zambia’s debt on the basis of unfair and shady dealings should be forgiven and forgotten. The country was only seeking assistance because of its new independence, I honestly don’t think that its right for them to be continually punished and coherced out of the precious little money they have.
However, Patel & Hochfeld (2012) in their study in South Africa identified significant difficulties with micro-economic development interventions and they discovered that social workers felt ill-equipped and ineffective in these areas. When it comes to economic concepts social workers are blank. Other participants in this study questioned whether economic development was indeed a social work role. They indicated that they are not economists (Patel & Hochfeld, 2012). But being closely associated with the poor and vulnerable in society, social workers are key social partners and change agents in development and should therefore play an important role in the nation-wide effort to reduce inequality and eliminate poverty (Lombard,
African nations regularly fall to the bottom of any list measuring economic activity, such as per capita income or per capita GDP, despite a wealth of natural resources. The bottom 25 spots of the United Nations (UN) quality of life index are regularly filled by African nations. In 2006, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. In many nations, the per capita income is often less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty times what the average African does. Although per capita incomes in Africa have also been steadily growing, and poverty falling, measures are still far better in other parts of the world, such as Latin America, which suffers from many of the same disadvantages that Africa has.
To fully understand Zimbabwe’s current situation, and the rule of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF, it is important to first outline their rise to power. Zimbabwe’s independence came fairly late in relation to most other African nations. Furthermore, the current iteration of Zimbabwe won its independence through armed struggle. These two factors are the result of a somewhat unique situation in Zimbabwe’s colonial history. By the late 19th century what is now Zimbabwe came under the control of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Country. When Rhodes obtained concession over valuable mining areas from the locals he was granted a Royal Charter by the United Kingdom to incorporate all of the territory that now makes up Zambia, Zimbabwe, and parts of Mozambique into the British colony of Rhodesia. Later, the territory south of the Zambezi River would become known as Southern Rhodesia, while the territory north of the Zambezi became Northern Rhodesia.
Charlick, R. (2000) "Popular participation and Local Government Reforms" Africa Notes, New York: Cornell University, (April) pp1-5
In Africa, one important feature of the urbanization process is that a lot of the growth is taking place in the industrial increase. Urbanization also finds expression in external expansion of the built-up area and the changing of prime agricultural lands into residential and industrial uses (Saundry, 2008). An alternate to the present expansion of the urban population across a wide area of the country in order to save crucial land for agriculture is to construct high-rise buildings and support commercial development in specific zones, which would depend on efficiency, and the right technology and resources (Hanson, 2011). In Africa, the urbanization processes are largely driven by market forces and government policies. This will lead to methods at the same time of change in incomes, land use, health and natural resources management including water, soil and forests and often reactive changes in local governments (The Economist, 2010). So this is saying that government development policies and budget divisions, in which urban residents are often favorites over rural areas and will tend to pull more people into the urban areas. I...
These key programmes are: meeting basic needs, developing our human resources, democratising the state and society, building the economy. There have been many successes with regards to implementing the Reconstruction and Development program. Three years into the program, there were many changes in the lives of the South Africans in rural areas. Free healthcare has been provided for women and children around the country. A nutrition project had reached over 12,000 schools in the country. With regards to health care, 550 clinics had been built and about 2500 were being reconstructed and improved. 1.3 million Electrical connections were made and 1 million water connections were made. In the year 2010; 2,376,675 households around South Africa were provided with houses with running water, sanitation and electricity. It is through providing these houses that job opportunities have been provided for the people. The Reconstruction and Development program aims at working together with the people to achieve the goals that have been set out. This has been achieved because the in the rural areas are the ones who are working on the project. They have a better source of income and at the same time they are working at meeting their basic needs which are housing, electricity and
It is natural to be misled by the idea that economic growth is the key