Just wanted to share a piece I did for the Daily Mail last week Thursday. -- By Nkonkomalimba Kafunda It is not worthy that the Zambian Economy has been growing steadily over the past 12 years and is this year expected to grow at a rate of 7.7%. The growth has been fuelled by the various sectors most notably mining, agriculture, construction, transport and manufacturing. This growth has attracted investment from across the globe to the extent that in 2012 the country received US$10.1 billion as Foreign Direct Investment. However, despite such historically unprecedented levels of investment and Economic Growth of 7.3%, poverty continues to haunt the majority of Zambians. Additionally, large swathes of the country continue to be underdeveloped. According to the World bank 60.3% of Zambian live in poverty. The country has defined its own development agenda through its Vision 2030 and the Sixth National Development Plan (FNDP). The Plan is organized around the theme of “broad based wealth and job creation through citizenry participation and technological advancement.” Specific development goals include fostering a competitive and outward-oriented economy, significantly reducing hunger and poverty, and reaching middle income status. The first step came in July 2011 when Zambia was classified a Lower Middle Income country by the World Bank. However, Zambia’s economic growth has not translated into significant poverty reduction. Sixty percent of the population live below the poverty line and 42% are considered to be in extreme poverty. Moreover, the absolute number of poor has increased from about six million in 1991 to 7.9 million in 2010, primarily due to population growth. The urban picture is far better than the rural: in the Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces, for example, poverty incidence is fairly low (22% and 34% respectively), whereas in the rest of the country, which is dominated by agriculture, poverty rates are greater than 70%. Almost 90% of Zambians who live below the extreme poverty line are concentrated in rural areas, and the poverty gap ratio (a measure of how far average incomes fall below the poverty line) is far higher for the rural population than their urban counterparts (20% and 3.7%, respectively). Accelerating growth and reducing poverty will necessitate increasing the competitiveness of the Zambian economy by reducing the cost of doing business and ensuring that the rural economy, upon which much of the population depends for its livelihood, contributes meaningfully to overall growth. Despite vast potential and stated commitments to diversification, the mining sector continues to dominate the economy. Part of the problem has been lack of information on possibilities and opportunities in certain parts of the country as well as inadequate infrastructure. With recent developments such as link Zambia there is need to create a communications platform to inform both local and foreign investors about such developments and the general conditions prevailing in different parts of the country. (The link Zambia 8000 project aims to build 8000 kilometres of new roads in the next five years so as to link areas which were previously inaccessible due to poor or no road networks. This development is expected to speed up development as goods and services will freely move between markets and areas of production). The burden therefore falls on thge media to report on development related issues rather than politics as has been the norm. The reading public , in my view, will appreciate news that impacts positively on their lives. In a nutshell, we as media practitioners require a paradigm shift in the way we present our information. As purveyors of news our foremost responsibility to the readers and the nation at large should be publishing information which is not only educative but useful.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 12:43:49 +0000
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