On 24 October 1964, the Republic of Zambia was formed, replacing the territory which had formerly been known as Northern Rhodesia. Fifty years on, Andrew Sardanis provides a sympathetic but critical insider's account of Zambia, from independence to the present. He paints a stark picture of Northern Rhodesia at decolonisation and the problems of the incoming government, presented with an immense uphill task of rebuilding the infrastructure of government and administration - civil service, law, local government and economic development. As a friend and colleague of many of the most prominent names in post-independence Zambia - from the presidencies of founding leader Kenneth Kaunda to the incumbent Michael Sata - Sardanis uses his unique eyewitness experience to provide an inside view of a country in transition.
This book looks at what went wrong and right during Zambias first fifty years of nationhood and based on this makes some recommendations, where necessary, on the way forward for the country in the areas covered in the book. The cutoff point for the book is October 24, 2014. The book is a systematic discourse on a range of socioeconomic and political developments in the country since independence. The discourse covers political history, constitutional history, political culture and citizen participation in public affairs, sovereignty and democracy, foreign policy, civilian control of armed forces, dependency syndrome, employment creation through micro, small, and medium enterprises, marketing systems, library and information services, labour matters, the civil service and social welfare.
This Selected Issues paper presents an analysis of change in Zambia’s mining fiscal regime. Foreign investment has revived Zambia’s mining sector. However, its mining sector’s direct contribution to government revenues has been low. Reflecting persistent concerns about the low contribution of the mining sector to budget revenues, the government has amended the fiscal regime many times over the last seven years. The 2015 budget introduced major changes to the mining fiscal regime. The authorities estimate that the change would boost budget revenues from the mining sector by about 1 percent of GDP, based on an assumption that the change would have no adverse impact on production.
This country factsheet presents key agricultural R&D indicators in a highly accessible visual display. The publication also feature a more in-depth analysis of some of the key challenges that the country’s agricultural R&D system is facing, and the policy options to address these challenges.
Zambia has made commendable progress over the last two years in implementing its reform agenda to stabilize the economy, lay the foundation for inclusive growth, and create jobs against the backdrop of significant external shocks. The authorities reached an agreement with official creditors on June 22 on a debt restructuring consistent with program parameters. The restoration of fiscal and debt sustainability, together with reforms to boost private and human capital investment, and strengthen governance and anti-corruption, support a positive medium-term economic outlook. Nonetheless, with poverty and inequality amongst the highest in the world and climate vulnerabilities high, significant challenges remain. Sustained efforts are essential to maintain fiscal credibility while also creating sufficient space for social, development, and climate spending.
This book argues that light manufacturing is appropriate for a resource-based country like Zambia. While Zambia's recent growth has been impressive, it has not been accompanied with adequate job creation. Long-term job creation in copper production is very small; links to the rest of the economy tend to be weak as well. Besides, the development of natural resources tends to discourage job-creating sectors such as manufacturing. To be sustainable and to create productive employment for its people, growth needs to be accompanied by structural transformation. Such transformation entails a growing share of manufacturing output in the economy. In the past, Zambia's efforts to promote and facilitate industrial growth have not been very successful. Policy regimes swung from one extreme to another. In the 1980s, Zambia put complete control of the industrial sector in the hands of the state. When this model proved unsuccessful, policy shifted in the opposite direction in the 1990s, and all earlier government interventions were lifted. Neither extreme led to sustained growth of manufacturing. This book suggests an alternative: directing government policies toward removing constraints in a few of the most promising light manufacturing sectors using practical and innovative solutions inspired by the fast-growing Asian economies whose starting point 20 years ago was not very different from Zambia's today. This book has several innovative features. First, it provides in-depth cost comparisons between Zambia and four other countries in Asia and Africa at sector and product levels. Second, the book uses a wide array of quantitative and qualitative techniques to identify key constraints to enterprises and to evaluate differences in the performance of firms across countries. Third, it uses a focused approach to identify country- and industry- specific constraints. It proposes market based measures and selected government intervention to ease these constraints. Fourth, it highlights the interconnectedness of constraints and solutions. For example, solving the manufacturing input problem requires actions in agriculture, education, and infrastructure. The book shows that Zambia has the potential to become regionally competitive in several light manufacturing subsectors by leveraging its comparative advantage in natural resource industries such as agriculture, livestock, and forestry. Interventions include both the provision of public goods and the removal of existing policy distortions in the economy. Growing production of light manufacturing goods would allow Zambia to capture more value from its raw materials and create more jobs.
