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Low copper prices to hit Zambia's income

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:34:13 GMT

Friday, January 02, 2009

Zambia's tax revenues will be hit badly in 2009 unless copper prices rebound, the country's revenue authority (ZAR) was quoted as saying on Wednesday.In April, the government introduced a windfall tax at 25 percent and profit variable tax at 15 percent above eight percent earnings, hoping to raise $415 million additional revenue in 2008 from the copper mines, but these efforts were dashed with plummeting copper prices.ZAR's Commissioner General Chriticles Mwansa told state media that tax...

Source: http://af.reuters.com/article/zambiaNews/idAFLV69139220081231

ZAMBIA: Lower copper prices will hurt the poor

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:41:26 GMT

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The fall in international copper prices is causing unease in Zambia, one of the world's largest producers, whose impressive economic growth in recent years has been based on copper exports.

Frederick Bantubonse, general manager of the Zambia Chamber of Mines, told IRIN: "It's causing a lot of concern; we are selling, well and good, but the pricing is not as profitable as we would like it to be. This is not good for the Zambian economy."

Since the beginning of the credit crunch in the US, copper prices have tumbled from the record highs of nearly US$9,000 per metric tonne between 2005 and 2007, to around $5,000 per tonne, amid concerns that the global economic slowdown will puncture demand. Copper is a key metal in the electronics and building industries.

"We are foreseeing a situation where our mining companies may begin to cut down on further investment programmes because of [making] less money and, ultimately, this may not just affect their profits but even their employment base," Bob Sichinga, an economist and former MP who served on Zambia's parliamentary mining committee, told IRIN.

"We now have some mining companies advocating for the cancellation of the new tax regime [introduced by the government this year] because they feel the market is no longer favourable for such taxation, which is very unfortunate for the country."

Copper accounts for 80 percent of Zambia's foreign earnings, and has helped drive healthy economic growth of five percent over the last six years. The government had projected additional revenue of $415 million in 2009 after raising the mineral royalty tax from 0.6 percent to the global norm of 3 percent, and the introduction of a windfall tax on mining companies as a result of record copper prices.

Social services

Oliver Saasa, a consultant economics professor at the University of Zambia, said falling copper prices would affect the delivery of social services. "It's putting a lot of pressure on the new government. As it is now, there is a reduction in government revenue, and also no windfall profit because of the low prices; the windfall tax is only applicable where prices are high," he commented.

Newly elected President Rupiah Banda is keen to make a positive impression after narrowly winning the 30 October presidential election, in which urban voters in the capital, Lusaka, and the central Copperbelt region, Zambia's economic heartland, voted overwhelmingly for opposition leader Michael Sata. In his inaugural speech Banda pledged to fight poverty and improve social spending.

"Because of the reduced resource base, government will face problems in social investments for such critical sectors as education and health," Saasa said. "Already, even before the fall in copper prices became an issue, we had overshot our national budget because of the [October 30] elections."

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) October survey projected that growth in sub-Saharan Africa was likely to slow to 6 percent in 2008 and 2009, down from 6.5 percent in 2007, but the deceleration in oil imports could be sharper, dropping to 5 percent.

Food and fuel prices are likely to remain substantially above their 2007 levels, the IMF said. This means deeper poverty for households in sub-Saharan Africa, which typically spend about half their income on food. The World Bank has estimated that 44 million people worldwide will fall into poverty in 2008 as a result of price increases.

The prices of key commodities have rocketed over the last three years in Zambia: a 25kg bag of maize-meal now sells for $18.00, up from $11.00 in 2006; a litre of petrol (gasoline) has risen US 75 cents over the same period.

But all is not gloom, according to Mathias Mpande, head of the mining engineering department at the University of Zambia. "The price of around $5,000 per tonne is not very low - it is still four times higher than the all-time average of copper, which is about $1,200 per tonne. In any case, the former prices were very high, and unsustainable because copper is traditionally a cheap product."

The three-year record copper prices were triggered by strong demand from the fast-industrialising Asian countries, especially China and India, the biggest foreign investors in Zambia's Copperbelt mining region.

"What we should realise is that this credit crunch has mostly affected the US and the European Union; China and India have not been that much affected. The demand for copper in China and India will not drop and, therefore, prices are slowly going to stabilise, which is why we should not tamper with the new tax regime," Mpande said.

Kalombo Mwansa, Zambia's mines minister, said the government was working on policy measures in the event of a long-term price slump. "Our hope is that this fall in copper prices won't last long, because the whole world is very much united to find a lasting solution to the credit crunch," he told IRIN.

"But even if it lasts longer than anticipated, government is currently working on measures to ensure there is a steady flow of investment ... and that the situation does not ground our economy."

At its peak in the 1980s, Zambia produced about 750,000 tonnes of finished copper annually, before output dropped to 200,000 tonnes in the 1990s. Current production is around 600,000 tonnes per year, but the government had projected this to rise to one million tonnes by 2010.

IRIN

ZAMBIA: A successful democratic election

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:19:34 GMT

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Zambia cemented its democratic credentials on 30 October in an election that observers judged free and fair, even though a defeated opposition leader has disputed the results in what was an exceptionally tight race.

"The just-ended elections were credible, peaceful and transparent," said John Kunene, team leader of the electoral observer mission from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

"In the course of observing the elections, we noted best practices that could be emulated by other countries within the region, among them high levels of political maturity demonstrated by leaders of political parties and the voters."

Rupiah Banda, vice-president to Levy Mwanawasa, whose death in office in August necessitated the election, narrowly won the hotly contested ballot by a single percentage point from his rival, veteran populist politician Michael Sata of the Patriotic Front (PF).

Banda, who had been Zambia's acting president, drew the bulk of his support from the rural areas, where the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has subsidised seed and fertiliser supplies to boost food security.

He took 39 percent of the vote to Sata's 38 percent, who did well among urban voters in the two richest provinces: Lusaka, the capital, and the Copperbelt region, the country's economic hub. Banda was sworn in on 2 November, a few hours after being declared the winner.

The new president's first term will end in 2011, the year Mwanawasa's second and final term would have closed. Mwanawasa, one of the founders of the MMD, died from a stroke after collapsing at a summit of African leaders in June.

The transparency of the election, Zambia's fifth since the end of one-party rule in 1991, was enhanced by the results from each polling centre being posted outside the building once the counting was over, and before the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) had officially announced them.

"The results, as released by the ECZ, are consistent with our own findings from our monitors in the polling stations," Stanley Mhango, president of a local electoral watchdog, the Foundation for Democratic Process, told IRIN.

"We are therefore able to say that the whole process has been very, very transparent, and the few negative incidents were not enough to warrant [being called] electoral malpractice."

Protest

Sata, who led the polls during the first two days of counting and only tumbled to Banda on the third and last counting day, disputed the final result, citing irregularities such as late voting in some constituencies.

Polling in two constituencies in Western Province took place two days after the official election date. ECZ chair Florence Mumba said, "Because of the bad terrain, all the three vehicles delivering electoral staff and ballot papers broke down."

Sata, who built a political image as a man of action, alleged that the ECZ had inflated figures for the MMD in its strongholds of Eastern, Central, Western and North Western provinces, and has called for a vote recount in suspected constituencies.

"These elections are not authentic ... only Copperbelt [where the opposition leader won by large margins] has a semblance of what is happening in our country," he said.

In the 2006 general election, which Mwanawasa won by 42 percent to Sata's 29 percent, violent clashes erupted in several towns in the Copperbelt and Lusaka provinces as Sata's lead evaporated when results from rural constituencies came in.

This time a heavy security force presence prevented a rerun of serious protest by disgruntled PF supporters, despite earlier predictions of post-election violence.

However, the election was marred by widespread apathy, with some poling centres recording as few as half the number of registered voters, based on the 2006 voters' roll. With just 90 days to organise the election, the ECZ was unable to launch a fresh voter registration drive.

In his inaugural speech Banda called for unity while pledging to continue Mwanawasa's pro-market policies, which slashed inflation to single digits in 2007, delivered annual economic growth of five percent since 2002, and brought a significant flow of investment into the Copperbelt mining region.

"To be president is to be president of all Zambians. It is not my intention to govern a divided nation; it is time we all united and worked for a better Zambian future," Banda said.

"We are a proud democracy. To the vanquished I have this to say: for Zambia's sake I will look forward, not back. The campaign is over, what is in the past must remain so. It doesn't matter which party you voted for, at the end of the day we are all Zambians."

IRIN

ZAMBIA: Hoping for a free and fair election

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:16:41 GMT

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Widespread allegations of pre-poll irregularities has cranked up tensions in Zambia ahead of presidential elections on 30 October to elect a successor to Levy Mwanawasa, who died in office in August following a stroke.

"There is a lot of tension in the country at the moment and stakeholders are generally sceptical that the election will be free and fair. All in all, the ECZ [Electoral Commission of Zambia] is to blame," Simon Kabanda, a spokesperson for Citizens' Forum, an NGO advocating good governance, told IRIN.

Part of the controversy has centred on the printing of 600,000 additional ballot papers by the ECZ "for contingency" purposes, although there has been no new registration of voters since 2006. Critics also question why the commission allowed a consignment of ballots to arrive from printers in South Africa unaccompanied by election monitors.

A government-employed driver was recently apprehended in the capital, Lusaka, after being found with ballot papers earmarked for delivery to North Western Province. The commission responded that the driver had picked up the electoral materials in error, rather than as part of any deliberate plot.

Despite electoral laws that prohibit the use of government resources for campaigning purposes, and biased coverage by the media, accusations have been traded that both the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and its main rival, the Patriotic Front (PF), have flouted the rules.

Violence

Political tensions spilled over into violence last week when angry MMD supporters went on the rampage in Lusaka, protesting what they deemed negative coverage by the privately owned newspaper, The Post. Journalists from both the public and private media were beaten up.

"We have already seen how violent the MMD supporters have been recently, and we also know how violent the PF supporters can be. So, the possibility of violence is very high after the election. This contest is too close, and whoever loses it ... will not accept the results," said a political analyst, who declined to be named.

The elections are unprecedented; Mwanawasa still had three years to run on his mandate, and the short timeframe to organise the polls - within 90 days of the death of a sitting president, according to the constitution - has put the ECZ under intense pressure.

The 30 October poll is expected to cost about US$75 million. The donor community, particularly the European Union, the US government, Japan, Finland, Norway and Sweden - coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) - have raised $11.5 million, with the balance to be met by the Zambian government.

"The support for the 2008 election in Zambia is a demonstration of the cooperating partners' commitment to see to it that democracy and the rule of law in Zambia is secured," said Macleod Nyirongo, the UNDP country director in Zambia.

MMD candidate Rupiah Banda, the Acting President, has pledged to continue Mwanawasa's pro-market economic policies, which slashed inflation to single digits in 2007 and led to appreciation of the local currency, with six percent annual growth over the last five years and a significant flow of investment into Zambia's economic heartland, the Copperbelt mining region.

Banda, 71, appointed vice-president in 2006, has secured the backing of two former heads of state – founding president Kenneth Kaunda and his successor, Frederick Chiluba. The latter fought corruption charges throughout Mwanawasa's seven years in power, and seems to be ignoring legislation he himself introduced banning former presidents from taking an active political role.

The ruling party is believed to be popular in three of Zambia's nine provinces: Western and Central provinces, and Banda's home region of Eastern Province.

But in Lusaka and the Copperbelt it has seemingly failed to eat into the urban popularity of PF leader Michael Sata, who also enjoys strong support in Northern and Luapula provinces.

"King Cobra"

Sata, 71, is a cabinet veteran from the governments of both Kaunda and Chiluba. His party won the two most recent parliamentary by-elections in the Copperbelt and Northern provinces, and recent opinion polls have tipped him to win the presidential election by a comfortable margin.

In the 2006 election, Sata - nicknamed "King Cobra" - won all the urban parliamentary seats in Lusaka and the Copperbelt – the country's wealthiest regions - but lost overall to Mwanawasa, who was able to mobilise the rural vote.

This time Sata has spent the last month campaigning in the countryside, promising to cut food and fuel prices, end the frequent electricity blackouts, slash income tax for the 500,000 government workers, who often pay as much as 30 percent, and create more jobs for the youth.

The PF leader has also toned down his previous vitriol when speaking about the growing Chinese presence, preferring to condemn what he terms "Chinese labourers" in the country and pledging to embrace "Chinese investment".

In 2006, Sata said he would expel Chinese businesses for allegedly paying poor wages and violating labour laws, and threatened to recognise Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province. China is a major foreign investor in Zambia's mining industry.

Since its inception in 2001, the PF has held no party conventions or leadership elections, and critics have pounced on Sata's charismatic leadership style, questioning his party's commitment to democratic process.

IRIN

President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia dies at age 59 following stroke

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:39:42 GMT

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Levy Mwanawasa, the President of Zambia died yesterday at age 59. He died in a Paris hospital in France. His death was intially announced by an anonymous family member. It was later confirmed on television by vice president Rupiah Banda.
Mwanawase suffered a stroke while in Egypt in June of this year for an African Union summit, whereafter he was flown to France. His condition suddenly deteriorated on Monday.

"I also wish to inform the nation that national mourning starts today and will be for seven days," said Banda.
United States President George W. Bush expressed condolences and referred to Mwanawasa as "a champion of democracy in his own country and throughout Africa."

Mwanawase whose political career started in 1985 when he was appointed Solicitor General in the Zambian government. He was appointed Vice President of Zambia in 1991. He left office in 1994 announcing gross abuse of office and corruption as his reason. He retired in 1996 but later ran for president in 2001.

He won the 2001 presidential election beating ten other candidates. He sucessfully ran for a second term in 2006. He was one of the first African leaders to critisise Robert Mugabe.
He also criticised the West for its position on doing business with China. "You people in the West redeem yourself before you begin attacking China," Mwanawasa said.

Mwanawasa suffered a mild stroke in 2006. On July 3, 2008 it was reported that Mwanawasa had died, these reports later turnt out to be false. He had been in the French hospital since early July. Rupiah Banda is now the current acting president of Zambia. A presidential by-election will have to be called within 90 days.

Wikinews
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/

Mary Muyunda, "The school should be a safe place for all the pupils"

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:25:43 GMT

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

In a landmark ruling on 15 July, the High Court in Lusaka, capital of Zambia, ordered the government to pay about US$13,000 compensation to a 15-year-old school girl raped by her class teacher. Mary Muyunda* brought a civil action against the teacher, the school and the minister of education.

The judge also ordered that the Director of Public Prosecutions commence criminal proceedings against the teacher, as the evidence of rape was "overwhelming". The teacher was arrested, but subsequently released on bail. Mary Muyunda*, often breaking down with emotion, told IRIN her story.

"I have been very much disturbed; emotionally disturbed and very much stressed. I am trying very hard to forget how it happened, but I am failing. I can't just forget it; it's like it's just about to happen again, like it's just happening. I remember everything, every detail.

"I am still hurting. I cry always when I remember criticism from people. They would come and say things like, 'It never happened, you are lying'; things like that.

"It started when I asked for some past [examination] papers from my teacher. When I asked him [about the papers], he asked me to go and collect them from [his] home. That is when everything happened.

"What happened was wrong; it shouldn't happen, it shouldn't be accepted. The school should be a safe place for all the pupils; such things shouldn't be happening at school.

"I have heard many stories of pupils who are raped by teachers, but I never knew it could happen to me. I think the school is not a safe place for pupils anymore.

"But I think if measures are taken, schools can be safe places. But it's, like, they [the authorities] haven't started taking such measures to make a school a safe place.

"I was hurting [after the rape], I was very emotionally stressed. I was not myself, I would cry a lot. So, I told my other teacher about it. He advised me to tell someone - I needed to come out [in the open].

"I think it has made me to be a strong girl. I am a hero to some people; they always tell me that I am a hero.

"I see that teacher [who raped me] is still around, but he is not coming to teach. I think he has been fired.

"I went to hospital, I was found with [a sexually transmitted infection] - I can't talk about that - but not HIV.

"I think my advice to other pupils - if they find themselves in such a situation - I think it's better to tell someone."

*Not her real name

IRIN

ZAMBIA: Reports of the President's death "erroneous"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:12:31 GMT

Thursday, July 03, 2008

The Zambian government insisted today that President Levy Mwanawasa was alive - denying media reports he had died in a Paris hospital - and described South African President Thabo Mbeki's minute of silence in respect of his counterpart at a rally in Pretoria as "erroneous".

The South African radio station, Radio 702, first reported that Mwanawasa had died, after he had suffered a stroke on the eve of the African Union summit in Egypt on 29 June and had been taken to the French capital on 2 July for further treatment.

A frenzy of media reports followed, after government sources confirmed his death, and Mbeki asked people gathered at a rally to mourn the scores of foreign nationals killed in xenophobic attacks, to pay their respects for the passing of Mwanawasa, who is also the current chairman of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) of regional states.

"The executive secretary of SADC called me to say the president of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa, had passed away this morning," Mbeki said in Pretoria, according to local reports.

This was later corrected by a Foreign Affairs statement: "The South African government has been informed that President Mwanawasa has not passed on."

At a briefing called by the Zambian government, Mike Mulongoti, the information and broadcasting services minister, reiterated an earlier statement made on Zambian national television.

"As government, we are happy with the progress made so far on the health of Dr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa ... President of the Republic of Zambia. He is still in hospital and his condition is stable. He has continued receiving treatment for hypertension from the Intensive Care Unit of Percy Military Hospital, and there are no new developments. He had a satisfactory night at Percy Military Hospital in Paris, France."

According to the current constitution, which is under review, should a president die in office, elections should be held within 90 days.

Source: IRIN NEWS http://irinnews.org

ZAMBIA: Rising levels of resentment towards Zimbabweans

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:48:40 GMT

Monday, June 09, 2008

Zimbabweans seeking greener pastures in neighbouring Zambia – and an escape from the election violence wracking the country – are becoming increasingly concerned at the rising levels of contempt directed against them.

"We are being treated with a lot of indignation. Everywhere we go, we are being treated like lesser human beings; it’s like as long as you are a Zimbabwean woman in Zambia, then you are a prostitute [sex worker], which is not the case," Patience Ndhlobvu, a Zimbabwean cross-border trader in the Zambian capital Lusaka, told IRIN.

"I personally take strong exception to that; this is not fair, it’s not a situation of our own making … Zambians have been very good to us, but it’s like things are changing [now]. Everyone is suddenly saying bad things about us. Just the other day, someone called me a prostitute as I was selling my products [sweets, chocolates and biscuits] in town."

South Africa boast the continent's largest economy and is a first choice destination for Zimbabweans seeking to escape the more than 80 percent unemployment rate and an inflation rate unofficially estimated at more than one million percent.

However, recent attacks by South Africans against foreign nationals, which has killed over 60 people and displaced tens of thousands, has seen an influx of about 25,000 Zimbabweans from South Africa to Zambia according to the Red Cross, more than double the number already thought to be in the country.

Levy Mwanawasa, Zambia's president and chairman of the regional body the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), reportedly said the country did not have the capacity to host any more foreign nationals or refugees, as it was developing its former refugee camps into specialist institutions such as skills training centres.

Zambia was host to about 300,000 refugees fleeing the Great Lakes conflicts and the Angolan civil war during the 1990s; numbers have since fallen to about 113,000 following the repatriations of Rwandese, Congolese and Angolan nationals.

Mike Mulongoti, Zambia’s information minister and chief government spokesperson, said there was a concern Zimbabwe's presidential run-off elections on 27 June could precipitate the migration of yet more Zimbabweans to neighbouring states.

Rising tensions between neighbours

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the 29 March parliamentary poll and almost snatched a first-round victory in the presidential ballot. But 60 people have since died in political violence following the elections, according to the MDC.

"We are continuously being inconvenienced as a people of Zambia," Mulongoti told IRIN. "We can’t continue to deny that there’s something wrong going on there [in Zimbabwe] because their people are now coming onto our soil in thousands. They [Zimbabweans] are all over the place."

Zambia’s diplomatic relations with Zimbabwe are strained - in part as a result of Mwanawasa convening an extraordinary SADC summit ahead of the 29 March election. Mugabe refused to attend the Lusaka meeting and his government launched vitriolic attacks against Zambia, along with Botswana and Tanzania, for doing the bidding of Britain, in "a campaign for speedy regime change in Zimbabwe".

"As the government of Zambia, we take strong exception to the Zimbabwean government’s recent unwarranted attacks on us in the media. How long are we going to tolerate this? How long are we going to host these people? We did it during the struggle for freedom," Mulongoti said.

Lee Habasonda, executive director of the regional good governance and human rights watchdog, the Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes [SACCORD], told IRIN South Africa's xenophobic attacks, which appear to target Zimbabweans more than others, could spread to other countries if Zimbabwe's economic meltdown was not addressed.

Zimbabweans resented in the region

"The thing is, it’s not just here in Zambia where Zimbabweans are being resented, even in Botswana, even in Mozambique, and even in Malawi the situation is the same. We have a lot of them coming to do businesses in unacceptable fields such as in the sex trade,” Habasonda said.

In April 2008, Zambian immigration officials deported about 60 Zimbabwean suspected sex workers from Livingstone, the country's tourism capital.

The Immigration Department is attempting to curb the influx of Zimbabwean immigrants through Zambia's Southern Province border posts of Chirundu, Kazungula and Kariba, "but it’s difficult to completely clamp down on these illegal immigrants because they don’t require any visas to enter Zambia. Some of them come with a day’s permit as visitors but never go back," an immigration official, who declined to be identified, told IRIN.

"On average, we are having over 200 Zimbabweans crossing into Zambia every day," he said.

Zimbabwe's run-off presidential election could be the trigger for far larger numbers. "We are all keenly watching the situation in Zimbabwe. Whatever happens in Zimbabwe has a bearing on Zambia," Neo Simutanyi, a senior political science lecturer at the University of Zambia, told IRIN.

"Clearly, the people of Zimbabwe want change, but chances of a free and fair election run-off are very slim. What we foresee taking place in Zimbabwe is a possible military coup or armed rebellion if the ruling ZANU-PF goes through, which will be very bad for Zambia and the region as a whole."

Source: IRIN NEWS http://irinews.org

ZAMBIA: Ugandan refugees return home

Thu, 22 May 2008 04:26:26 GMT

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has begun the voluntary repatriation of Ugandan refugees in Zambia, some of whom have lived in the southern African country for over two decades.

The first group of 39 Ugandans, out of a total of 200 settled in the country, were repatriated by commercial flight on 21 May under the terms of a tripartite agreement between the governments of Zambia, Uganda and UNHCR. The programme is expected to run until the end of the year and cost US$210,000.

"Our target is to repatriate all willing Ugandans," UNHCR spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN. "We are therefore appealing to all Ugandan refugees wishing to repatriate to come forward and register with us for return in 2008."

Ugandan refugees arrived in the country in 1985 as guests of the government, accompanying ousted Ugandan president Milton Obote, who was driven from power by then guerrilla leader Yoweri Museveni. Obote, Uganda's first post-independence prime minister, remained in exile in Zambia until he died of kidney failure in 2005 aged 80.

At the height of the conflicts in the Great Lakes region and neighbouring Angola in the 1990s, Zambia hosted around 300,000 refugees. That figure has fallen to about 113,000 since a political agreement ended 27 years of war in Angola, and there has been intermittent peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the largest caseloads are still refugees from the DRC (55,434) and Angola (40,757).

"The refugee situation is still serious in Zambia; we still have big numbers in settlement camps and even outside the camps in urban areas. So, what we are doing at the moment is to focus on repatriation of those who volunteer to go back to their countries, and also help in the maintenance of those that are remaining in the country," Shimo said.

The voluntary repatriation of Angolans started in 2003, followed by Rwandans in 2004, and Congolese in 2007; now, Ugandans are going home.

A total of 74,000 Angolans have been formally repatriated, while an estimated 130,000 living outside the camps returned under their own steam. UNHCR plans to repatriate 19,336 Congolese refugees in 2008, in addition to the 7,323 that went home last year.

Source: IRIN NEWS http://irinnews.org

Japan allocates US$5 million to WFP and UNICEF in Zambia

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:26:42 GMT

Sunday, April 06, 2008

The Government of Japan has decided to allocate US$5 million to the Republic of Zambia through UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP). The purpose of the fund is to facilitate the implementation of various mitigation activities, including responding to widespread flood damage from the 2007/2008 rainy season, as well as disease control and HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

On 6 February, the Government of Japan decided to contribute US$264.5 million for the response to Humanitarian Crisis and Peace Building in Africa. Out of this money, US$55 million was allocated to six southern Africa countries which include Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Madagascar. Zambia was to receive US$5 million of which US$3 million was to be disbursed to WFP Zambia while US$2 million was to be disbursed to UNICEF.

On 18 March, remittance formalities between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, UNICEF, and WFP were finalized and the funds have been released to UNICEF and WFP in Zambia for various mitigation activities including floods experienced by Zambia in the 2007/2008 rainy season.

UNICEF Zambia: The funds allocated to UNICEF Zambia will be used for the following activities:

• Counter measures on Mother to Child transmission of infectious diseases;
• Health Care for Neonatal and Child Health;
• Sustainable Operation and Maintenance Project for Rural Water Supply; and
• Seminar on sensitization and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

“UNICEF will also be using this extremely generous and appreciated funding from the Government of Japan to support the expansion of Child Friendly Schools, which is a holistic effort for community schools to become centres of care and support for vulnerable children,” said UNICEF Zambia Representative Lotta Sylwander. “With more than 1.1 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Zambia, this is an extremely important initiative in protecting every Zambian child’s right to an education and to protection.”

WFP Zambia: The funds allocated to WFP Zambia will be used for the following activities:

• Nutrition support to ART clients, family members and OVCs;
• Provision of food to flood affected people; and
• Support for community capacity building and income_generating activities.

The method of Participatory Village Development in Isolated Areas (PAVIDIA), which is one of JICA projects, will be introduced to the rural areas to support community capacity building in collaboration with WFP, JICA and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
“This important contribution comes at a critical time, just as WFP resources are dwindling for flood response. The resources will enable WFP to meet the immediate food needs of 240,000 People for one month under the Flood Response as families struggle with the crop loss,” says WFP Zambia Country Director, a.i Purnima Kashyap.

She further went on to say that “The contribution will enable WFP to continue vital assistance to 224,000 beneficiaries including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) attending community schools and additional support to the most food insecure OVC households for two months.”
“We are also excited to be starting a partnership with the PaVIDIA project, which is a MACO project supported through JICA, who provides technical assistance, contributing to sustainable livelihoods by supporting community capacity building and income_generation”, she added.

It is hoped that the funds disbursed through UNICEF and WFP will go a long way towards meeting the healthcare, livelihood and food security needs of vulnerable communities in Zambia thereby contributing significantly to the improvement of the quality of life for the citizens.

UNICEF