Global Policy Forum

By Chama Nsabika

Policies made in Washington for poor countries do not work, observed United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short yesterday. Short, in relation to Zambia's preparation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) which needs to be in place to fulfil requirements of debt relief mechanisms, said a country itself has to be involved in any policy that is meant for its development.

She expressed satisfaction that the various meetings her group held with civil society, government representatives, the business community and parliamentarians had indicated that government was taking a more inclusive approach in issues pertaining to economic development and use of national resources. "It is important that more people are being consulted on how resources and revenue are to be used and which way the economy should go," Short said. She was optimistic that if Zambia really went with the reform programme, it would get more support from donors on top of debt relief.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) board is expected to announce later this month whether Zambia would qualify to decision point for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. She said donors believed, particularly those from the Utstein Group, that there could be a turn-around for Zambia's economic growth. Short disclosed that they were truly shocked at the existing poverty levels witnessed in the country and "it made us all to really reflect". She said they looked at figures for under 5 children indicating that in the last ten years, chronically malnourished children had risen from 37 per cent to 52 per cent. "This is really worrying because it affects both the intellectual and physical development of these children," she noted.

She also noted that people have to become more serious about conflict resolution in Africa if the region is to move forward and develop. And Norwegian international Development Minister Anne Kristin Sydnes said the three ministers of development had very open and frank discussions with various interest groups and President Frederick Chiluba. She, however, indicated that corruption in Zambia had developed into a major hindrance to development and that the capacity of the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) was clearly not satisfying.

Sydnes said it was inevitable to build capacity in all institutions fighting corruption and that new alliances and partnerships were needed. "Capacity means having capable people to investigate and prosecute. Corruption is a very bad way of managing resources and is also a form of stealing from the poor for whom we are responsible to help," she observed. She added that tight financial and legal systems was important as well as management of public resources because what was needed was accountability and transparency and that new systems particularly in the Ministry of Finance had been put in place, with some success but that a lot still had to be done.

She said a lot of discussions had centred on democracy and good governance and in this vein, there was need to improve capacity in big institutions to combat corruption which was a major concern to them as donors. She observed that they also wanted to see implementation of all the good policies and want to concentrate their effort at country level. "We are co-ordinating work on the multi-lateral front and it is much related to implementation of the reform agenda and key issues," Sydnes explained. She said it worried them that government was struggling to reduce poverty but at the same time they saw an increase in poverty levels.

And Maj-Inger Klingvall, minister for international development co- operation of Sweden, said free and fair elections next year would give Zambia a very good reputation and that they were looking forward to the polls. Klingvall said they fully respected President Chiluba's decision not to go for a third term of office when his mandate expired next year because Africa needed good role models and leaders that respected their own Constitution by relinquishing power when the time came. She also noted that it was vital to mainstream the gender perspective in development. "When you say you've got a good democracy you should have representation of both men and women in all decision and policy making bodies," she stressed.

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