4. Statement by the African Development Bank Group
The African Development Bank Group (ADBG) noted their appreciation of the continued commitment of the Government of Zambia to the implementation of its reform programs and to addressing the problem of poverty. The Group commended Government for its efforts in preparing the PRSP and extended appreciation to the donors who have remained partners with the Group in supporting poverty reduction in Zambia.
The Group shared the view that the PRSP provides a good basis for addressing the problem of poverty in the medium term and urged Government to show the same level of commitment to its implementation as it did during the preparation of the document. They noted that the challenge of poverty reduction in Zambia was enormous as the provision of basic social services in the health, education, water and sanitation sectors still remained inadequate. This situation had been aggravated by the problem of food insecurity and the HIV/AIDS scourge and called on Zambia’s cooperating partners compliment Government’s effort in order to achieve accelerated poverty reduction.
The Meeting was informed that ADB’s inclination for Zambia was to narrow down their interventions to one or two sectors where economies of scale and the development impact would be highest. The Bank Group would continue to provide policy based support to the Government and pledged to move away from their traditional policy based credits to support balance of payments to assistance through the budget.
The ADB expressed appreciation with the Government’s good record of timely debt service to the Bank and, as an encouragement to the Government, approved and disbursed a supplementary Financing Mechanism (SFM) credit of UA4.97 million in 2000 in addition the Bank was supporting Zambia’s HIPC debt relief with US$146 million. In the medium term, the Bank would explore ways and means to assist the Government in addressing the problem of its domestic indebtedness.
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