3. The Consultative Group Meeting for Zambia - September 2000
This section provides an overview of the Donor concerns at the CG 2000, and limits itself to only those concerns that categorically centre on political governance7. The underlying assumption is that Donors are also cognisant of the expectations of an asserted congruence between democracy and governance, and hence that their concerns will not be at variance with the concerns of the people as observed and or monitored by civil society organisations. If a variance exists, then it is imperative that Donors are made aware of their derogation of fundamental and universal tenets of democratic governance.
The political governance concerns raised at CG 2000 are herein provided in two categories: general and specific.
3.1. The General Concerns
The general concerns were that the Zambian government needs - to undertake measures to implement the good governance programme; institute legislative reform inline with the good governance policy; respect for human rights; civil society recognition, and; redress of corruption and abuse of the exercise of public authority.
3.2. The Specific Concerns
Categorical specific concerns cited are:
- Elections
- Provision of information on Electoral Commission recommendations on amending the Act to provide for continuous voter registration and broader representation on the Electoral Commission, which was submitted to Government in April 2000.
- The Zambian government should as a means of ensuring free and fair elections meet the following conditions: the composition of the Electoral Commission must change to give people the confidence in the electoral process; transform the Electoral Commission into an organisation that would have representation from each political party participating in the election; equal and fair access to the media; freedom of assembly for all, and; implement voters education exercise smoothly.
- Corruption
- Address misuse of power and public resources and irregularities in public procurement, and;
- There is need for action with respect to Auditor – General's reports of financial malpractices in public institutions and control corruption in institutions like Zambia Electricity Supply Company (ZESCO) and the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
- Human Rights Protection
- Need for respect of human dignity (police use of excessive force), and; upholding freedom of expression (tolerance of diverse opinions).
- Improvement of Prison conditions.
- Accountability and Transparency
- implement human rights, governance and corruption programmes by instituting concrete and feasible measures for implementation of Good Governance programme, and prioritisation of the programme, and;
- Need for government actions to be consistent with Good Governance document, e.g. corruption, media control, application of Public Order Act, transparency in public spending.
3.3. A Civil Society Note on Concerns
Deriving from the Donor concerns, Civil Society indicated that the pledged support is contingent on the country's consolidation of democratic governance, respect for human rights, promotion of transparency and accountability in government, and adherence to equity in political competition during elections.
In short, the challenge for government arising from the Donor concerns is that it should act on cases of corruption, bad governance (such as abuse of the exercise of public authority), human rights abuses and other state failures likely to constrain good governance, and as a consequence socio-economic growth.
Footnote:
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The assumption here is not that other issues (like economic management, poverty reduction, gender) do not affect political governance, but the recognition that other papers shall provide the relevant categorical positions
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