UCLG COUNTRY PROFILES Republic of Zambia Capital: Lusaka Inhabitants: 11.668.000 (2005) Area: 752.618 km²

1. Introduction

(MPs) also serve for a five year term. The president is empowered by the constitution to nominate 10 members of parliament. S/He appoints his vice president and cabinet from the MPs but s/he can also appoint them from the nominated MPs although these should not be more than five.

Zambia is a unitary state located in southern Africa. It is a former British colony which got its independence in October 1964. Zambia is a landlocked country and has eight neighbors i.e. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to the south, Angola to the West, Mozambique, Malawi to the east and south east and Congo DR and Tanzania to the North (see figure 1 below). At the last census in 2000 the population of Zambia stood at 10.6m with about 43% of the population living in urban areas. The Country has an area of about 752, 600 km2.

In addition to the National Assembly, Zambia also has a house of chiefs which comprises 27 chiefs, 3 from each province which acts as an advisory body on traditional and customary matters. Administratively, Zambia is divided into nine provinces i.e. Copperbelt, Central, Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Lusaka, North-western and Luapula. Each of the nine provinces is headed by a Provincial Minister (equivalent to a Deputy Minister) appointed by the President. The provincial administration also has a secretariat headed by the provincial permanent secretary.

The President is both head of state and government and is directly elected through national presidential and parliamentary elections every five years, on the basis of first past the post. According to the constitution a President can only serve for two terms. The parliament, known as the national assembly if the president is in attendance, is unicameral and has 150 elected members each representing a constituency. The members of parliament

History of Local Government The history of local government show that, it’s in 1990 that the one party era came to an end and in the elections of 1991 a new party came into power. The 1980 local administration Act has become irrelevant since it was premised on a one party system. Thus, in December 1991 a new Act came into force and it was called the

UNITED CITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS COUNTY PROFILE: ZAMBIA

Local Government Act (cap 281 of 1991). The new act brought the following changes: (i) The Ministry of Decentralisation became the Ministry of Local Government and Housing and was responsible for Local Government while Cabinet office was responsible for provincial and district administration; (ii) a Deputy Minister (appointed by the President) became the political head of the province and was assisted by the Provincial Permanent Secretary who headed the secretariat; (iii) the dual system of district administration was re-introduced; (iv) the local government elections were also reintroduced and the Mayor/Council Chairperson replaced the district governor while the Town Clerk/Council secretary replaced the District Executive Secretary; (v) in 1995 the government introduced the national, provincial and district development coordinating committees to coordinate development activities; (vi) in 2000 the government introduced the position of District Administrator (DA – the name later changed to District Commissioner) who was appointed by and reported to the President and headed the field administration.

2. Current State Structures Figure 2 below shows the current government structures and the relationship between the three levels of government i.e. the Centre, the province and the districts. As indicated above, the district (which is currently the main level at which service is delivered) has a dual administration i.e. the field administration of Central Government (represented by departments of line ministries such as Education, Health Agriculture, Works and supply etc). The two systems have separate reporting lines: The field administration staff report to their ministries through the provincial administration headed by the Provincial

Figure 1: The Local and Central Government Structures

Central Government (CG)

Central Government (Ministry of Local

(Line Ministries headed by Ministers)

Government and Housing (MoLGH)

Provincial Government (Headed by Deputy Minister)

Provincial Local Government Officer (PLGO)

CG Field Administration (Headed by District Commissioner (DC) – appointed by CG)

Local Authority (Headed by elected Mayor and Council Chair)

Sub-district structures • Ward Development committee (WDC) • Residents Developmt. Committee (RDC)

Permanent Secretary while the councils report directly to their parent Ministry, i.e. Local Government and Housing (MoLGH). The Provincial Local Government Officer (PLGO) has some very limited powers based on what the Minister delegates to him or her. The field administration is headed by the District Commissioner while the Council is headed by the Mayor/Council Chairperson. In terms of local government Zambia has a single tier system comprising three types of councils, namely: City, Municipal and District Councils. Currently, Zambia has a total of 72 councils. There are 4 city councils, Kitwe, Ndola, Livingstone and Lusaka. These have an average population

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of 511,000 with Livingstone being the smallest at 158,149 and Lusaka the largest at 1,103,413. There are 14 municipal councils which have an average population of 168, 640 with Kalulushi being the smallest at 72,765 and Chipata the largest at 362,132. There are 54 district councils in the country which have an average population of 112,199. Petauke is the largest district council with a population of 242,533 while Luangwa is the smallest with a population of 21,990. Below the district is a myriad of sub district structures

3. Decentralization Zambia has made two attempts to decentralise local government before: in 1968 and 1980. In both cases however, no meaningful decentralisation took place. The origins of the current decentralisation effort can be traced back to 1993 when the republican President launched the Public Sector Reform Programme (PSRP) whose primary objective was to improve the quality, delivery, efficiency and effectiveness of the public services. The programme had three components i.e. (i): Restructuring of the line ministries; (ii): Management and human resource improvement, and (iii): Decentralisation and strengthening of local government. Decentralisation was therefore the third component of the PSRP. The overall strategy was to position the public sector so that it facilitates private sector-led growth. This was in keeping with the new government’s policy of moving the country from being public sector led to market orientation. The policy formulation process of the current decentralisation reform started in 1995 when the consultations were initiated. Extensive consultations with different stakeholders were made between 1995 and 1998. These consultations

involved NGOs, Chiefs, Senior Bureaucrats, Local bureaucrats, councillors, Donors and the general citizenry and were done through seminars, meetings and workshops. In 1998 when the draft document went to Cabinet it stalled. However, after the 2001 elections government changed although the same party retained power. There was a major policy shift over decentralisation and adoption of the policy was back to the top of the agenda. Thus, in December 2002, the government adopted the new decentralization policy and it was subsequently officially launched in August 2004 by the republican President. The main thrust of this policy is devolution although the process will start with deconcentration where local authorities will be given more functions while their capacity is developed (Malama, 2003). This means that the government intends to radically change the central local relations from that of master-servant to that of partnership where councils will be autonomous. The main driving force behind the new policy is to give the people more voice (through increased participation) in the running of local affairs, which means improved governance accountability. This is made clear by the following quotation from the policy document: ‘the vision of the government is to achieve a fully decentralized and democratically elected system of governance characterized by open, predictable and transparent policy making and implementation processes at all levels of the public service, effective local community participation in decision making and development and administration of their local affairs while maintaining sufficient linkage between central and local government’

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UNITED CITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS COUNTY PROFILE: ZAMBIA

Cabinet office set up the Decentralisation Policy Implementation Committee (DPIC) chaired by the Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet to provide leadership and direction on the implementation process. It draws its membership from the Permanent secretaries whose ministries were deemed to be affected by the decentralisation. A Decentralisation Secretariat (DS) was set up in August 2003 under the Cabinet office. However, in January 2005 the DS was moved to the MoLGH as it was felt that the process of decentralisation had stalled. There has not been much improvement in the process of implementation however, and there have been calls to move it back to Cabinet office. The problems with placing the DS in the MoLGH have become quite obvious in the recent past. Its proper co-ordination with the other two components of the PSRP has been difficult and it has all but disappeared since it is ‘hidden’ in the bowels of one ministry. Additionally, the nature of decentralisation is such that the DS needs to be liaising with line ministries. At the moment this can only happen by working through the PS of the Ministry as the Director of the DS is at a lower level. The main output from the DS so far has been the production of the draft Decentralisation Implementation Plan (DIP) in February 2006. This is supposed to be the definitive statement on the process of implementation. The DIP document gives 10 years as the period for implementation of the policy phases as follows: •

Phase One: November 2002 to December 2005 - Preparatory Phase

•

Phase Two: January 2006 to December 2010 – Finalisation of the DIP and beginning of its implementation which will include a mid term review.

•

Phase Three: 2010 Consolidation Phase

to

2012

–

The design of the DS institutional set up was determined administratively by the

Government. It is unlikely that in future this will be written into law as the general view is that the DS is just a temporary vehicle being used to facilitate implementation of decentralisation.

4. Territorial organization Territorial levels of government and their nature As indicated above, Zambia has three levels of government: Central government, provincial administration and local administration. Each of the 9 provincial administration headquarters is headed a deputy minister (appointed and answerable to the president) assisted by a permanent secretary who is head of the secretariat and coordinates government activities in the province. Additionally, in each province are provincial heads of department who act as the link between the district and central line ministries. These are answerable to their sector ministries on technical matters while administratively they are supervised by the provincial permanent secretary on day to day activities. In order to improve the operations of the provincial administration, central government created the Provincial Development Coordinating Committee (PDCC) whose main function is to coordinate the planning and implementation of developmental activities in the province. It draws its membership from the DDCCs and provincial sector ministry officers and is chaired by the provincial Permanent Secretary. The main role of the provincial administration is to coordinate activities of the districts in their territory. But the province also plays an important function in development planning. Firstly, each province has a provincial planning office. According to the Town and Country Planning Act (cap 283)

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of 1997, rural councils are not planning authorities and this function is performed by the provincial planning office. The urban councils however, have been given the status of planning authority by the same act. Secondly, the PDCC has a critical role to play in decentralized development planning as they act as the link between the DDCCs and the National Development Coordinating Committee (NDCC). The government has used these structures to develop the fifth National Development Plan which is due to be launched at the end of July 2006. Table 1 shows the distribution of urban and rural Local Authorities as well as the population in each of the nine provinces of Zambia. Although there are only 18 urban councils they hold almost half the total population of the country an indication of the high level of urbanization in Zambia. The Copper belt province has by far the highest number of urban councils as it is the most urbanized province in the country with its urbanization standing at 80%. It also has the largest population of all the provinces followed by Lusaka province. Table 1: The Distribution of Local Authorities and Population Per Province Province

No. of Local Authorities

Population

Urban

Rural

Central

1

5

1,006,766

Copperbelt

7

3

1,657,646

Eastern

1

7

1,300,973

Luapula

1

6

784,613

Lusaka

2

2

1,432,401

Northern

1

11

1,407,088

North Western

1

6

610,975

Southern

3

8

1,302,660

Western

1

6

782,509

18

54

Total

10,285,631

Source: commonwealth local government forum source book (2004)

Territorial reform The implementation of the decentralization policy will entail some reform to the provincial administration. The policy envisages a much stronger role to be performed by the province in development planning by giving legal backing to the PDCCs which currently they do not have. Although it is not clear what structure the province will take, it is expected that since more functions will be performed by the district after devolution there will be transfer of line ministry staff to local authorities. This might mean a leaner structure at the province although its functions will largely remain the same but with a much stronger role. The Local Government Act stipulates the composition of the council as follows: •

Members of Parliament in the district;

•

Two representatives of the chiefs, appointed by all Chiefs in the district. This was meant to involve traditional rulers in local governance, and

•

All the elected councilors in the district.

Since councils are a body corporate capable of suing and being sued they have recourse to the law if there rights are breached. However, they are protected by law from bailiffs.

5. Oversight on local Government The inter-governmental relations are regulated by the Local Government Act. The act gives the Central Government supervisory powers over Local Government and the Local Authorities (as already indicated above) report to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing which is the parent ministry through the Permanent Secretary or the Minister. The Local Government Act gives the Ministry of Local

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Government and Housing very wide ranging powers, for example, section 88 (1) empowers the Minister of Local Government and Housing to suspend or dissolve a council and appoint a Local Government Administrator in its place if the council ‘refuses, fails or is unable to adequately discharge all or any of its functions’. The Local Government Act also provides for the provincial local government officer (PLGO) in each province whose main function is to oversee the activities of Local Authorities. For financial oversight each province has a provincial local government auditor (PLGA). The law does not distinguish in terms of independent scrutiny between the capital city and the other local authorities.

6. Local Government Institutions and local Democracy The election of the local representatives or councilors is regulated by the Local Government Elections Act cap 282 of 1992. Since 1991 the elections have been pluralistic and any party is free to field candidates and even individuals are free to stand as independents. Previously, councilors used to serve on three year terms but that was increased to five in February 2004 in order to bring local government elections in line with the presidential and parliamentary elections. The council which is a body of elected officials act as a board of directors who oversee the functioning of the local authority. The day to day activities are done of behalf of council by officials employed by the council. The Local Government Act empowers the council to appoint employees for the purpose of assisting the council in the discharge of its mandate. Since 1996, the councils have the authority to hire and fire staff and they have the authority to determine their own

procedures for hiring staff as long as it does not contravene the law. All adult citizens are eligible to vote in the local government elections as long as they register as voters and the winner is declared on a first-past-the-post basis. However, the Mayor or council chairperson is elected by councilors from amongst themselves. This is set to change once the decentralization policy is implemented as the Mayors and chairpersons will also be elected by universal suffrage and will have executive powers which currently they do not have. Currently, the system of elections being used is one of democracy by majority. There is no proportional representation although the draft constitution has made a provision for this. Currently, only about 7% of the councilors are women. The general attitude of citizens towards the local politics is very poor. The turnout for the 1998 elections (this was the last time the local government elections were held separately) was a very low 12%. The general citizenry also shun standing for local government elections hence the caliber of councilors has generally been acknowledged to be poor (GTZ/UNDP; 2002). Even when making their lists parties usually start with the parliamentary lists which see much more competition than the local elections. Local government has a very poor image because most local authorities are in serious financial difficulties and do not provide any meaningful services. Currently, in many districts, there are no sub district structures recognized by the law. The Village registration and development Act of 1971 provided for the setting up of Ward development committees (WDC) in each ward but this is only done in some rural areas. These are chaired by the ward councilor and are largely put together by him or her. Most

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peri-urban areas however, have Residents Development Committees (RDCs) which are not backed by the law. These are preferred by donors and NGos as they are considered to be non political. They are established by councils who conduct organise elections within the areas affected. Councillors sit on these committees as ex-officios. Alongside these structures, in rural areas, there exist traditional rulers who have their own set up to govern their subjects in line with their traditional and customary law. The new decentralisation policy has specifically provided for the setting up of sub district structure countrywide. Lusaka is currently experimenting with egovernment although this is still in its infancy. No other local authority has implemented e-government. The Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) is the only national association for all local authorities in Zambia. It was founded in 1947 and its principal mission is to promote the interests and enhance the rights and autonomy of local authorities in Zambia. Membership is voluntary and all 72 councils are members of the association. It is funded through membership subscriptions. LGAZ has neither the legal nor constitutional recognition although it is widely recognised as the sole representative of the interests of Local authorities in Zambia. It is a member of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum and is affiliated to the Africa Union of Local Authorities (AULA) and the United Cities and Local Governments.

7. Local Finance Local Authorities are empowered by the Local government Act to raise finance through local taxes such as personal levy and property tax, although Central

Government has a say in the levels set for these taxes. Councils are also empowered through by-laws to raise revenue through other levies hence a number of councils have introduced grain levies, fish levies etc. Central government also has a say in the level set for the fees and charges. Thus, although, local authorities have responsibility over local taxes as well as fees and charges they need approval from central government. According to the 2002 (the latest available consolidated figures) estimates the main sources of income for local authorities based on aggregate figures are: a) b) c) d)

Local Taxes Fees and Charges Other receipts National Support

59% 18% 20% 03%

In 1992 the government stopped transfers to urban councils although they do get ad hoc transfers occasionally. Generally district (rural) councils get between 1% and 3% of their total budgets from the government. Currently, no system or formula for revenue sharing between central and local governments exists. Under section 45 (3) of the Local government Act central government is supposed to make specific grants to local authorities for the following functions: •

Water and Sanitation;

•

Health Services;

•

Fire Services;

•

Road Services;

•

Police Services;

•

Primary Education;

•

Agricultural Services;

• In terms of total public expenditure, local government’s share has been around 3% since the mid 1990s (Crook and Manor, 2001:p16).

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UNITED CITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS COUNTY PROFILE: ZAMBIA

7. Local Responsibilities and functions

8. Conclusion

Section 61 of the Local Government Act gives powers to Local Authorities to discharge the functions set out in schedule II. These number about 63 and vary quite widely from beer brewing to collection of refuse. There is no differentiation in functions between the different council types. Neither is there clarity on the sharing of functions between the different spheres of government. The functions are divided into nine broad categories: ‘general administration, advertisement, agriculture, community development, public amenities, education, public health, public order and sanitation and drainage’1. These functions are largely discretionary and not mandatory.

Local government in Zambia has undergone considerable change since 1991 which has led to the virtual collapse of most councils. Almost all councils are behind in paying salaries with some rural councils failing to pay their staff for as long a period as 18 months. None of the councils are in a position to provide meaningful services. Poor government policies have seen to that. Some of the most notable negative interventions from government have been: •

The cessation of intergovernmental transfers to urban councils in 1993;

•

The sale of council housing in 1995 at significantly below market value;

In 2002 (the latest available consolidated figures) the expenditure pattern was as follows:

•

The revision of the rating Act in 1995 giving wholesale exclusion in rate paying to a lot of institutions (this was later reversed in 1999);

a) Personal emoluments b) Provision of services c) Other expenses

•

The Personal levy Act of 1994 fixed very limited minimum and maximum amounts for personal levy, which is a local tax on all workers;

•

The withdrawal of road licensing from the councils in 1996, and the

•

The retirement of all staff who had clocked 22 years in local government not only robbed the councils of experienced staff but also forced them to look for money to pay the retirement packages which had not been budgeted for in 1992.

•

The appointment of District Administrators by the president in 2000 which led to more centralisation of power. The District Administrator’s office was given more resources than the councils which further undermined the effectiveness of the councils.

53% 10% 47%

Thus, on average only 10% of the expenditure goes to the provision of services while over half goes to personal emoluments. These figures have largely remained the same over the years. Although the central government in its budget guidelines for 2005 indicated that the maximum amount for emoluments should not be more that 20% of the budgets, many local authorities ignored that. The little amount available for service delivery means that no meaningful services are delivered by the councils.

1

Cited in Peter Loloji ‘ Enhancing Local Governance: the efficacy of bilateral cooperation’ in The Journal of Humanities Vol. , 2001, pp20 - 45

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However, in the last five years the new government has taken local government (and specifically decentralization) back to the top of the agenda. Decentralization is mentioned in most political speeches made by the president as well as in the main government documents such as the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) and the draft republican constitution. Although not much progress has been made with the decentralization reform program, there is now ample evidence that implementation is well underway i.e. the setting up of the DS, the development of the implementation plan and the commencement of the sensitization program for provinces as well as line ministries. The government is committed to transfer of not only functions to the district but also matching resources. There is also commitment to increased participation of citizens through the creation of the sub district structures, which a key aspect of the policy. These reforms once implemented will radically change the face of local government in Zambia. The main challenge to the reform process, though, is likely to be the buerearats who have so far been slow.

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