This essay is going to expose the extent to which development has taken place in Zambia under the Patriotic Front (PF) government. Development in this essay will be looked at according to Dudley Seers’ definition. As we proceed looking at the current extent of development in Zambia in view of Seers three pointers of development, recourse will be made to a number of authorities, such as books written by renown authors and or any other valid sources to support the argument. The essay will be concluded by making a summary of the whole essay and suggest possible way in which the government may deliver or even improve on the delivery of development to its people.
Before proceeding to look at the extent of development in Zambia under the current government, it is important first to understand what “development” is according to Dudley Seers. According to Seers, (1969:5), to consider whether development has taken place in a particular country; you need to ask what has been happening to poverty, unemployment and inequality. He further states that, “If all the three of these have declined from high levels, then beyond doubt this has been a period of development for the country concerned. However, if one or two of these central problems have been growing worse, especially if all the three, it would be strange to call the result ‘development’ even if per capita income had doubled” ibid. Hence, the truth can be deduced from the aforementioned that ‘development’ according to Seers, is the fulfilment of human potential of through a reduction in poverty, unemployment and in inequality (opcit).
Apart from this understanding of development, many other writers have defined development in their own understanding. One other definition is that of Todaro & Smith in the book entitled “Economic Development”. The defined development as a “multidimensional process involving major changes in social structures, popular attitudes, and national institutions as well as the acceleration of economic growth, the reduction of inequality and eradication of poverty”,(Todaro and Smith, 2012:16). However numerous the definition of development may be, after looking at the two definitions so far, we can safely conclude that development is about eradication of poverty and reduction in inequality levels. Even if Todaro and Smith do not out rightly bring out the issue of reduction of unemployment levels, Seers does not also look at development as a dimensional process. The fact is that there is some commonness between the two definitions. Our focus in this essay however, is on the definition by Seers and not any other. Therefore, we shall not waste much time on the definitions by different writers, but rather straight go into explaining the three pointers of development according to Seers definition and link them to the current Zambian development scenario.
The first pointer we shall look at is ‘Poverty’. Poverty may be either relative or absolute. Though there is no universal agreed definition of poverty, Chigunta defines it as, “insufficient access to food, education, health care, adequate shelter, adequate income, clean surrounding, sanitation and safe drinking water and lack of power” (Chigunta, 1998:3). This is what he calls “absolute poverty”. “Absolute poverty is a situation of being unable or only barely able to meet the subsistence essentials” (Todaro, 2012:211). As at the year 2010, extreme poverty in Zambia was at 42.3%. Despite improvements in the past 20 years in the depth of poverty in urban areas, Zambia is still far from reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) target of 29% by 2015 (MDG Progress Report, 2013:10). Since it has been observed that poverty has diminished in urban areas, then it can be argued that the people who are still affected by extreme or absolute poverty are the rural poor Zambians who cannot meet the subsistence essentials of food, clothing, shelter, clean water and sanitation and other human necessities. Nevertheless, Government is doing everything possible to take development to the rural areas through the Link Zambia 8000 project.
The second pointer to be looked as while consider the extent of development that has taken place in Zambia under the PF government in view of Seers definition of development is, ‘Unemployment’. According to Seers, (1969:5) the question to ask is what has been happening to unemployment? Moreover, if there is a decline in unemployment levels, then development is taking place in a particular country in question. Actually, so many writers have defined the term ‘Unemployment’ differently. Let us however look at a few of them. Encarta Dictionaries, (2009) defines unemployment as; “The condition of having no job”. Another definition is that Unemployment is an “economic indicator that refers to the number or proportion of people in an economy who are willing to and able to work, but are unable to get a job” (http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/unemployment). Under the same definition, it is stated that people who are not willing or not able work for whatever reason, are economically inactive and do not count towards unemployment figures (ibid). It is now known that unemployment has to do with a condition or state of being jobless, or a proportion of people willing and able to work but unable to find employment.
In the year 2008 Zambian’s total population was estimated at 12,363,878. Of these, 6.8 million were aged 15 and above. Out of the working age population of 15 years and above, 5,413,518 were in labour force, while 1,344,931 had no jobs (Laboourforce Report, 2010:vii). After analysing these figures, it can be said that the number of people who had no jobs represented about 19.9% of the total working age population then while the total labour force represented about 54.7% of the total population in 2008. In 2012, Zambia’s total population was estimated at 14,365,719 (Preliminary Labour Force Survey Report, 2012:3). During the same year, Zambia’s working age population was estimated at 7,837,038. Of these, 5,845,250 were in the labour force while 1,991,788 were not economically active (Ibid:5). After also analysing the 2012 figures, it is discovered that about 25.4% of the total working age population were not in employment. To answer the question as to what has been happening to unemployment, it can be argued that from the year 2008 to 2012, there has been an increase in unemployment levels of about 5.5%. The cause of this is another matter that which can be discussed in a different essay. Nevertheless, casual observation shows that the Government is doing everything possible to reduce the levels of unemployment through policy implementation. For example, as noted by Mr. Fackson Shamenda, that the creation of new district and one province by the current government has so far created a number of jobs for the people of Zambia (http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/blog/2013/10/03). The link Zambia 8000 Project is one other programme that has also created both permanent and non-permanent jobs and it ease transportation to and from rural areas.
The Government has gone an extra mile to discourage unnecessary layoffs of workers by employers (http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=33452) by Misheck Wangwe. The Government has maintained that they have created 195 000 jobs since 2011. In a media statement to the Post Newspaper signed by Deputy Minister of Information and Broadcasting Mwansa Kapeya and in response to the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, (JCTR), that Government has not created 195 000 jobs (http://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/04/04/government-releases-media-statement-maintaining-they-have-created-195-000-jobs-since-2011/). If the position is true then development is slowly taking place.
The third and last pointer of development according to Seers under consideration is ‘Inequality’. According to the European Ant-Poverty Network, though not clearly defined, it says, “unlike poverty which concentrate on the situation of those at the bottom of society, inequality shows how resources are distributed across the whole society” (http://www.eapn.eu/en/what-is-poverty/inequality-what-is-it). This gives a picture of the difference between in the average income on what the poor and the rich earn (ibid). The responsiveness of poverty to economic growth is weakened by income inequality, which reduces the growth gains that accrue to the poor. Zambian’s Gini Coefficient, which measures income inequality, was at 0.65 in 2010 and mostly rural areas. Most economic activities are concentrated in urban areas while the rest of the country is fairly underdeveloped and dependant on subsistence farming (MDG Progress Report, 2013:17). It has also been stated that, the top 10% of Zambian’s share more than half of total national income. The bottom 60% share less than 14% of total income (Ibid). This represents serious levels in income earning for the country. There is need to know that, inequality can be measured in many ways. For example, through income earning as already noted, sex, race, education, gender etc. Zambia is however on track to achieving gender parity in primary school enrolment as well as in literacy among 15-24 year olds. However, the country has moved backwards in women representation in Government. Women’s representation in local councils is at 6% while in Parliament is at 11% (Ipcite:10-11). Nevertheless, it has been observed that Government is trying to reduce gender inequality levels by appoint many women to leadership positions and by promoting girl child education.
In conclusion, after looking at the challenges the Government is facing and the positives that it has so far scored in developing this nation in view of Dudley Seers definition of development, it is right to say that, to a lesser extent development has taken place under the Patriotic Front (PF) Government. This conclusion has been reached at, after considering the efforts being made by the Government as indicated by the statistics and casual observations, to eradicate poverty, reduce unemployment levels and inequality currently being experienced in Zambia. However, accelerated intervention on the part of the government into the state of underdevelopment being experienced especially in the rural parts of Zambia, is an issue that does not require further emphasis. Otherwise, the efforts so far made will be just in vain. | |

REFERENCES.
Chigunta, Francis, J. et al. 1998, “Will the poor always be with us? Committee for Campaign Against Poverty. Lusaka: Zambia.
Encarta Dictionaries (2009), ©1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/blog/2013/10/03. Retrieved on 17/11/13. http://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/04/04/government-releases-media-statement-maintaining-they-have-created-195-000-jobs-since-2011/. Retrieved on 16/11/13. http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/unemployment. Retrieved on 16/11/13. http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=33452 retrieved on 20/11/13.
Central Statistics Office 2010. Laboourforce Report 2010. Lusaka: Zambia,
UNDP. 2013. Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Progress Report 2013.
Central Statistics Office 2013. Preliminary Labour Force Survey Report 2012. Lusaka: Zambia.
Seers, Dudley. 1969. The Meaning of Development, Communication Series No. 44, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK.
Todaro, Michael P. and Smith, Stephen C. 2012. Economic Developmen., 11th edition. Pearson Education, Inc. Boston, MA: USA.