Monday, July 14, 2008
CAN YOUTHS APPRAISE PROJECTS EFFECTIVELY?
INTRODUCTION
Projects are the cutting edge of development. Perhaps the most difficult single problem confronting managers of development programmes in most developing countries (LDCs). This is mainly because of poor project choice and preparation. Beside aspects of development planning, project choice and preparation involve identifying development objectives, selecting investment priority areas, designing effective price policies and mobilising resources. Unless projects are carefully chosen and prepared in substantial detail, inefficient or even wasteful expenditure is almost sure to result-a tragic loss in nations in short of capital. This entails that careful project choice and preparation in advance of expenditure is cardinal in ensuring efficient economic use of capital funds and increase chances of implementation on schedule.
Projects provide an important means by which investment foreseen in planning can be clarified and realised. This is virtually done in line with systematically elaborated national plans to hasten economic growth and attain social objectives pursued by a particular country in a hurry to develop. This entails that sound development planning require good projects, just as good projects require sound planning. Sound planning rests on the availability of a wide range of information about existing and potential investments and their likely effects on growth and other national objectives that are meant to improve society’s welfare. It is the project analysis that provides this information, and those projects selected for implementation then become the vehicle for using resources to create new income.
Realistic project choice and planning involves knowing the capital investment to be spent on development activities each year and resources (human and natural) required for particular investments. Well chosen and analysed projects often become the channel for obtaining outside assistance when both the country and the external financing agency agree on a specific project activity and know the amount of resources involved in timing of loan disbursements, and the benefits likely to be realised by society. This can be determined by use of the social benefit-cost analysis. The social benefit-cost analysis is recommended by many economists because it fills gaps that result from projects selected on the basis of a positive net present value (NPV) that might not have effective impacts on the lives of the people. It also seeks to incorporate the importance of the principle of income distribution in project selection, since some projects can have a positive NPV without real meaning to the majority people.
The core of this essay therefore lays against the backdrop of the social benefit-cost analysis and the criteria mostly used in project selection. The essay sets to use practical examples in critically analysing the assertion that “in appraising projects, it is quite common nowadays to reject commercial profitability as a basis of planned project choice, but this causes a gap that social benefit-cost analysis has to fill and that the objective of social choice is to maximise social gains including the selection of public projects.”
DEFINING OF KEY CONCEPTS
According to Weiner (1964: 861), “a project is a unique set of coordinated activities with a definite start and finishing point undertaken by an individual or organisation to meet specific objectives within defined schedules, costs and performance parameters.” Social benefit-cost analysis is a process of identifying, measuring and comparing the social benefits and costs of an investment project or programmes, (Campbell, 2003: 12). Although projects may be public-undertaken by the public sector or private, they have to be appraised to determine whether they represent an efficient use of resources. Meanwhile, project appraisal refers to the assessment or study of the feasibility of project proposals in terms of total economic costs and total economic benefits before resources are committed into the project, (Hansen, 1986: 92). Furthermore, Lipalile (2003: 10) states that development means improvement in a country’s economic and social conditions; with emphasis on the improvements in ways of managing an area’s natural and human resources in order to create wealth and improve people’s lives. Gittinger (1984: 35) defines a cost as anything that reduces an objective, and a benefit as anything that contributes to an objective.
ANALYTICAL FRAME WORK
The allocation of resources among competing, but critical areas of the economy is one of the issues challenging all global economies. However, the matter is more serious in LDCs due to the scarcity of resources in these countries compared to the developed world. This means people in developing countries are poorer than those in developed countries and cannot even meet their daily basic needs. These economies mostly depend on donor assistance for sustenance as their economic bases cannot generate enough revenue to meet the numerous challenges they face. Therefore, careful use of resources in competing needs is important. Some of the techniques several scholars have proposed in project appraisal are the use of the social benefit-cost analysis and investment criteria in resource allocation or the input analysis as sustainable techniques. But some scholars argue that the use of the market mechanism is a very important way of allocating resources using the price mechanism. The method uses market forces of demand and supply and the capacity of consumers to pay-off for the products on demand or supply. They further argue that the state can only come in to correct market imperfections when need arises to ensure the consumer gets the best price.
However, from the social view point, the best mechanism to use in the allocation of resources in public projects is the social benefit-cost analysis. This is because this technique looks at how the chosen project is likely to contribute significantly to the development of the total economy and how justifiable the use of scarce resources will be in that particular project. The view takes into account the contribution of the project to the economy as a whole not only to the particular investor’s interests. Some commercial projects are rejected when the maximisation of net income for the investor supersedes the costs of the project to society. According to Hassaballa (1987: 17), “both private and public projects must be appraised from the social benefit-cost analysis point of view to ascertain their likely contributions to society because even the use of resources from the private view point involve costs and benefits to a wider range of individuals than the private owner.” For example, a private project may pay taxes, provide employment for the otherwise unemployed and generate pollution. These are effects of social benefits and costs. It is on this basis that the social benefit-cost analysis is preferred in appraising both public and private projects to weigh project costs over its contributions to society’s welfare. The benefits (or costs) could be directly or indirectly like provision of road networks into areas that are non-proximity to the project area or pollution of water sources even in areas far away from the project area.
The Kafue Steel Plant was for example rejected by the Environment Council of Zambia on the basis that the Environmental (or Social) Impact Assessment for the project showed that its costs on society would be more than benefits. (However, the project was later approved based on short term political demands). According to Sadler at el (2000: 08), “the social impact assessment focuses on the social and cultural effects of development initiatives and decisions and their consequences on human populations, communities and individuals.” The assessment primarily aims at minimising the adverse effects that some projects may have on natural resources, the ecosystem and human beings. Such assessments are part of a broad based planning approach in project choice to ensure that development opportunities and options are adjusted to environmental potentials and capacities.
Campbell (2003: 10) claims that public projects should be thought in terms of the provision of physical capital in the form of infrastructure such as bridges, highways and dams. There are however other less obvious types of physical projects that augment environmental capital stocks and involves activities such as land reclamation, pollution control, fishery management, investment in forms of human capital like health, education and skills and social capital through drug-use and crime prevention and reduction of unemployment, (ibid). This shows that there are few, if any, activities of government that are not amenable to appraisal and evaluation by means of social benefit-cost analysis. Additionally, most scholars argue that economic efficiency measured as the difference between benefits and costs ought to be one of the fundamental criteria for evaluating proposal projects because society often has limited resources to carry all competing projects. In this regard, the social benefit-cost analysis can help illuminate the trade-offs involved in project choice in different types of social investments. That is, the mechanism is a project choice barometer on how scarce resources can be put to the greatest social good, (Arrow at el, 1997: 322). This means balancing of benefits and costs of the project to society can help to promote more efficient and effective project choice.
This entails that project analysts should consider the social patterns and practices of the clientele a project will serve. They should carefully examine the broader social implications of proposed investment by including its weights for income distribution in the analytical framework to ensure that the project benefits favour lower-income groups, (Gittinger 1984: 16). Ascertaining the impact of these benefits on society is not easy, hence public project choice is somewhat challenging than private projects. For a private commercial entrepreneur, project choice is determined by how best the project satisfies the project owner’s objectives. Such commercial projects have often been rejected by national planners (whose evaluation is beyond positive NPV) by looking at the big picture of society’s welfare in project choice.
National planners look at alternative projects that best satisfy the interests and objectives of the nation. This kind of planning is complex not only because defining national interests is problematic, but also because identifying these interests by different planners could be different. Furthermore, if different planners pursue different national objectives using different mechanism in project selection, the result may be unsatisfactory and conceivably disastrous. Therefore, the main reason of doing social benefit-cost analysis in project choice is to subject the process to a consistent set of general objectives of national policy. Thus, the choice of one project rather than the other must be viewed in the context of the total national impact, and that total impact should be evaluated in terms of a consistent and appropriate set of objectives.
For example, there was agitation to the sale of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) when the privatisation project took root in Zambia because the mining sector was the anchor of the country’s economy. Different national planners proposed particular views on how it was to be pursued. This was because ZCCM was a sensitive and critical enterprise in the country’s economy, and if the state surrendered such economic power to investors, the entire economy would crumble if the investors for example decided to shut down the mines because the realisable returns on the investment is lower than expected, (Matale, 1996: 03). Taking the social benefit-cost analysis as a yardstick, in line with government long-term objectives of bringing economic efficiency, extricating government’s involvement in running industries, and focus scarce resources on education, infrastructure, and other social welfares, the project was implemented. This enhanced the meeting of long-term government objectives of promoting growth of the private sector by leveling the playing field for better competition on the market. Additionally, it meant broadening share ownership so that the public has mechanisms for saving money and participating in the economies of the country. This was meant to broaden the country’s revenue base.
The broader national parameters planners used in opting to privatise ZCCM against the other view of keeping it under state control was based on long-term benefits of the project which were more than the costs it could bring to society. The project created confidence in the country’s policies that new investors injected their capital in different sectors of the economy. Foreign investors confidently invested their money in the country because a favourable environment for more investment was created. For example, following the pull-out of Anglo America Corporation from the running of ZCCM and its consequential privatisation, government identified Vedanta Resources Plc of India as the Strategic Equity Partner in Konkola Copper Mines Plc (KCM). And KCM embarked on key projects that have increased the life span of its mining activities to more than 30 years after the privatisation of ZCCM. The main projects KCM is developing are the Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP), the construction of the ultra modern Nchanga Smelter, Konkola Concentrator and the green field project, which is a new open pit mine called Fitwaola, (Ndumingu 2008:03). These expansion projects involve an investment capital of over US$1 billion. Currently, KCM is rated as one of the major contributors to Zambia’s tax base with an estimated tax of US$75-80 million per annum, (2007, Parliament Estimates).
Furthermore, Gittinger (1984: 37) states that the social benefit-cost analysis is cardinal in appraising any type of a project to ensure that the project builds-upon society’s objectives of increasing income generation and distribution to other areas of the economy. That is, the whole society mainly aims at broadening the national income base, which should be carefully distributed to increase the number of productive job opportunities. This means more jobs could be created in other beneficiary areas from the revenue generated by viable sectors. As a result the number of the unemployed would fall, hence reducing dependency in the country. The proportion of savings would thus increase, and there will be more to invest as households are able to save when dependency reduces. In addition, economic growth would be faster and there would be more income in future.
The other concerns of society to consider in project choice would be addressing broader issues than narrow economic considerations such as increasing regional integration, upgrading the general levels of education, improving rural health systems or safeguarding national food security, (ibid). Any of these objectives may lead to the choice of the project that would contribute more to national income. For example, to ensure food security in the country during the Structural Adjustment Programme phase, government engaged the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in the supply of inputs (fertilizer and seeds) and credits to small-scale farmers through primary cooperatives and associations, (Nyanga 2006: 49). The project enable farmers to access inputs as most of them could not afford to buy at the market price since they were concentrated in rural areas where incidences of poverty were as high as 74%, (ibid). The government objective was to ensure food security in the country, tallying with millennium development goals’ overview of enhancing household capacity of accessing food in order to reduce malnutrition levels and other health issues.
Additionally, in recognition of high poverty levels in the country, government established the Fertilizer Support Programme and the Food Security Pack under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programmes (PRSP) as some of the five programmes meant to increase food production and enhance food security among small scale farmers in line with the PRSP, (PRSP 2002/04). The programmes were meant to service small scale farmers so that they improve farm productivity levels, enhance food security and ultimately reduce poverty. Although no evaluation was done to ascertain the project’s effectiveness, there was an increase in food production in the country during the 2002/04 farming seasons to 1, 424, 439 metric tonnes, (Post 2007: 11). This helped in minimise food prices in the country.
This entails that for a project to be meaningful, the social evaluation should be generally tied to factors of financial and economic appraisals. That is, a project cannot be expected to assist consumers in an area unless it improves the supply of a good or service at the price lower than the earlier one the product was offered. Since impacts of the project can be positive or negative, the affected people should be somehow compensated. For example, after the opening of Albidon Munali Nickel Mine in Mazabuka District, communities that were within the mining area were relocated to new areas where they were provided with farming inputs for five years and new housing units were built for them by the company (Radio Phoenix, 06:45 News 8th July 2008). Those that did not benefit directly got jobs at the mine in various sections of its operations. The company is also estimated to be contributing more than US$76 million to the government treasury when it starts full operation, (Post 2008: 12).
Negative social impacts of projects were also heavily felt during the privatisation project. According to Kaitisha (2008: 15), “… the pace at which the privatisation process was implemented was so quick that new firms had to hire labour…and this had repercussions of souring unemployment and destitution forcing government to form the Zambia Privatisation Trust Fund to facilitate share buying.” Additionally, through the establishment of Employee Share Ownership Plans by companies like Bonnita, Chilanga cement, Zambia Sugar and others that sold shares to management and employee buy-out teams, Zambian workers became shareholders in a number of profitable and growing privatised enterprises, (ibid). Furthermore, Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) created a platform tailored to the needs of smaller growth companies and shareholders called LuSE Alternative Investment Market to encourage local and foreign investment in shares. This initiative was meant to increase the availability of loanable funds to other business ventures in the country, which would reciprocate into more job opportunities.
An expansion on the level of employment or a reduction in unemployment is one of the most important measures of project choice. This is because employment impacts on two measures of project selection; consumption and income distribution. Since unemployment makes it difficult for people to have an income (thereby contributing nothing to income distribution and consumption), employment represents the most important measure of project benefits and selection. Income distribution comes in the equation when people have jobs from which they earn income, because they contribute to the national treasury through tax either directly or indirectly. This could be through pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) or value added tax (VAT) when they pay for goods or services they purchase or use. People also consume more when they earn an income and that raises their standard of living. The raise in the standard of living is equally a fundamental goal of national planning and this naturally includes project selection. The key way of measuring the standard of living is determining the level of aggregate consumption per head. When the aggregate level of consumption goes up, it shows that people are living better; and this determines whether the project is beneficial to society.
An increase in fuel prices is for example likely to reduce the consumption level of the commodity in the country. Consequently, the distribution of income will be poor as the purchasing power of the commodity by the majority will be eroded; hence their contribution to the national revenue through VAT reduces. The state also loses revenue realisable from road levy as few vehicles will be on the road. Therefore, since prices are influenced by demand and demand by income distribution, employment is cardinal in project selection. For example, in its broad strategic plans to enable the transport sector attain the overarching goal of improving fuel supply in the country; Zambia (in conjunction with the Tanzanian government) sought for funds to construct Tanzania-Zambia oil pipeline (TAZAMA) from Dar-es-salaam to Indeni Refinery in Ndola, (Babati 2007: 03). The project meant to improve the flow of crude oil in the country, which could consequently maintain fuel prices at manageable levels by the majority. This was in realisation that cost-effective fuel prices impact greatly on the standard of living of the majority in the country. That is, the consumption levels of goods and services reduce as suppliers have a tendency of passing the costs they incur to the consumer. The Zambian economy currently depends on TAZAMA for imports of crude oil for domestic use and export to neighbouring countries.
The TAZAMA project, which gave birth to Indeni oil refinery, has many economic impacts on the immediate vicinity of the project. The project provided employment to different types of workforces that were/are engaged in the construction and maintenance of the facilities of the project. In addition, Indeni refinery has some spiral effects on other industries that supply inputs to it and those that depend on its outputs for their production. For example, Zambia Electricity Corporation (zesco) supplies power to the plant, while Unilever use Indeni’s by-products in its production of Vaseline and other products. According to Graciela (1996: 124), “inter-sectoral costs and benefits that may arise from the proposed project should be considered and then ascertained in terms of how market prices of goods and services and factors of production would be adjusted in response to the project’s economic value to society at large.”
In the final analysis, project choice can be based on its contributions to the increase in physical production, which could be the most common benefit of society. For instance, an irrigation project that permits better water control so that farmers can obtain higher yields to improve food security would be selected. And a credit project can make inputs available for farmers to increase their production. According to www.sp.org, “…using the 2006-2010 Fifth National Development Plan, government has introduced the Agriculture Support Programme to support increased food security and income by promoting ‘Farming as a Business’ concept in Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern provinces through a process of facilitation, infrastructure improvement, capacity building and other support mechanisms relevant to the sector.” The selection of the project was also meant to increase home-consumption of agricultural products, which expands the project’s net benefit to the nation.
In some instances, project benefits could be in form of an improvement in the quality of the product. For example, the analysis of the Cattle Restocking Exercise, which was to extend loans to producers of exogenous cattle and supplied the Ministry of Cooperatives and Agriculture, was meant to increase cattle production for the benefit of local farmers within the vicinity of the restocking project, (FNDP 2006: 105). The project also meant to improve the supply of animal produce like milk and beef after the animal population has grown, which could consequently lead to a reduction in prices of these products. According to Gittinger (1984: 47), “price effects on the local markets are cardinal in project selection because when prices decrease because of the project; this is a gain to consumer surplus and has to be considered as a value of the project to society.” In this vein, the selection of the cattle restocking exercise took into account the benefits it would have on the welfare of society when weighed against costs.
A project can be chosen as profitable to society when the social benefits exceed its social costs, rather than its NPV being positive, Thirwall (2006: 316). For example, the displacement of local family households in the Lumwana Mine project was weighed against the benefits to be realised from the project in the country. According to Radio Phoenix (June 17th 2008: Face the Media), “the Lumwana Mine project will lead to a production of more than 3000 metric tonnes of copper per day and will create between 4,100-6,200 new jobs in North-Western province.” The project is also estimated to inject more than US$60 million per year into the nation treasury, (ibid). The project further resulted into the construction of new houses, guest houses and other auxiliary services like banking and communication services in order to enhance quick productivity in the area. Other benefits the project spurred are the creation of new job opportunities in businesses outside the project, better health care (to reduce infant mortality as a result of more rural clinics to cater for the company workforce), better nutrition, reduced incidence of waterborne diseases as a result of improved water supplies, national integration, or even national defense. Such benefits are real and reflect true values of the project.
CONCLUSION
Since the allocation of resources among crucial competing areas of the economy seriously challenges all global economies; projects provide an important means by which investment can be clarified and its benefits realised. This is virtually done in line with elaborated national plans meant to hasten economic growth and further various social objectives of the nation. The achievement of these national objectives can be hastened by project choice vis-à-vis social benefits and costs rather than a mere positive NPV. This means the selection of projects involves ascertaining the project that satisfies best interests of the public and national objectives. Virtually, the objectives of social choice are to maximise social gains. Therefore, project choice should take into account the effective project contributions to the whole society and whether those contributions justify the investment of scarce resources into that project. The selected project should be supportive by the public and should tally with the national economic policy. Thus, the social benefit-cost analysis is cardinal in project selection on the basis of net gains that translate to the whole society rather a positive NPV that has no real impact on people’s lives. Therefore, the investment chosen should stimulate productivity to satisfy the market demand, thus creating new employment opportunities to match the level of production. This will in turn increase consumption levels that can spur re-investment, hence improving income distribution in the country as the newly employed will buy more thus contributing to national treasury.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arrow K.J. at el 1997, Environmental and Development Economics: Is there a role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental Health and Safety Regulation? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Babati S. 2007, Economic Report of TAZAMA Oil Pipeline: Project Upgrading. Dodoma: African Development Fund.
Campbell H. 2003, Benefit-Cost Analysis: Financial and Economic Appraisal using Spread Sheet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gittinger J. P. 1984, Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects. Washington: World Bank.
Hansen J.R/UNIDO 1986, Guide to Practical Project Appraisal: Social Benefit-Cost Analysis in Developing Countries. IDI/SER H/31-Viena.
Hassabala H. O. 1987, Kenana Projects in the Context of Settlement Schemes in the Sudan. Khartoum: Economic and Social Research Bulletin 137.
Matale J. at el 1999, An Investigation of Linkages between the Zambian Economy and the Privatisation of the Mining Industry. Lusaka: Report Represented to Afronet.
Ministry of Finance and National Planning 2006, Fifth National Development Plan. Lusaka: MoFNP.
Ndumingu N. 2008, From Paper to People, Post Privatisation of ZCCM: The Case of KCM Expansion Projects. Lusaka: ZDA Vol 2. No.3.
Nyanga P. 2006, Impact of Agricultural Policy Changes on Household Food Security among Small-Scale Farmers in Southern Zambia. Oslo: Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Radio Phoenix 2008, 18: 00 Hours News. Lusaka.
Sadler B. at el 2000, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for Large Dams. Cape Town: World Commission on Dams.
Thirwall A.P. 2006, Growth and Development: With Special Reference to Developing Economies. New York: Palgrave, McMillan.
Weiner S.C. 1964, The Long Man Encyclopedia (2nd Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
DEPARTMENT OF mass communication
NAME: Siachiyako Clive M.
COMP: 25020919
Lecturer: Mr. Mwanza V.
COURSE: Project Appraisal
COURSE CODE: 925
Due Date: Monday 14 July 2008
TASK: second Assignment
QUESTION: Using practical examples, critically analyse
The assertion that “in appraising projects, it is
Quite common nowadays to reject commercial
Profitability as a basis of planned project
Choice, but this causes a gap that social
Benefit-cost analysis has to fill and that the
Objective of social choice is to maximise social
Gains including the selection of public
Projects.”
Projects are the cutting edge of development. Perhaps the most difficult single problem confronting managers of development programmes in most developing countries (LDCs). This is mainly because of poor project choice and preparation. Beside aspects of development planning, project choice and preparation involve identifying development objectives, selecting investment priority areas, designing effective price policies and mobilising resources. Unless projects are carefully chosen and prepared in substantial detail, inefficient or even wasteful expenditure is almost sure to result-a tragic loss in nations in short of capital. This entails that careful project choice and preparation in advance of expenditure is cardinal in ensuring efficient economic use of capital funds and increase chances of implementation on schedule.
Projects provide an important means by which investment foreseen in planning can be clarified and realised. This is virtually done in line with systematically elaborated national plans to hasten economic growth and attain social objectives pursued by a particular country in a hurry to develop. This entails that sound development planning require good projects, just as good projects require sound planning. Sound planning rests on the availability of a wide range of information about existing and potential investments and their likely effects on growth and other national objectives that are meant to improve society’s welfare. It is the project analysis that provides this information, and those projects selected for implementation then become the vehicle for using resources to create new income.
Realistic project choice and planning involves knowing the capital investment to be spent on development activities each year and resources (human and natural) required for particular investments. Well chosen and analysed projects often become the channel for obtaining outside assistance when both the country and the external financing agency agree on a specific project activity and know the amount of resources involved in timing of loan disbursements, and the benefits likely to be realised by society. This can be determined by use of the social benefit-cost analysis. The social benefit-cost analysis is recommended by many economists because it fills gaps that result from projects selected on the basis of a positive net present value (NPV) that might not have effective impacts on the lives of the people. It also seeks to incorporate the importance of the principle of income distribution in project selection, since some projects can have a positive NPV without real meaning to the majority people.
The core of this essay therefore lays against the backdrop of the social benefit-cost analysis and the criteria mostly used in project selection. The essay sets to use practical examples in critically analysing the assertion that “in appraising projects, it is quite common nowadays to reject commercial profitability as a basis of planned project choice, but this causes a gap that social benefit-cost analysis has to fill and that the objective of social choice is to maximise social gains including the selection of public projects.”
DEFINING OF KEY CONCEPTS
According to Weiner (1964: 861), “a project is a unique set of coordinated activities with a definite start and finishing point undertaken by an individual or organisation to meet specific objectives within defined schedules, costs and performance parameters.” Social benefit-cost analysis is a process of identifying, measuring and comparing the social benefits and costs of an investment project or programmes, (Campbell, 2003: 12). Although projects may be public-undertaken by the public sector or private, they have to be appraised to determine whether they represent an efficient use of resources. Meanwhile, project appraisal refers to the assessment or study of the feasibility of project proposals in terms of total economic costs and total economic benefits before resources are committed into the project, (Hansen, 1986: 92). Furthermore, Lipalile (2003: 10) states that development means improvement in a country’s economic and social conditions; with emphasis on the improvements in ways of managing an area’s natural and human resources in order to create wealth and improve people’s lives. Gittinger (1984: 35) defines a cost as anything that reduces an objective, and a benefit as anything that contributes to an objective.
ANALYTICAL FRAME WORK
The allocation of resources among competing, but critical areas of the economy is one of the issues challenging all global economies. However, the matter is more serious in LDCs due to the scarcity of resources in these countries compared to the developed world. This means people in developing countries are poorer than those in developed countries and cannot even meet their daily basic needs. These economies mostly depend on donor assistance for sustenance as their economic bases cannot generate enough revenue to meet the numerous challenges they face. Therefore, careful use of resources in competing needs is important. Some of the techniques several scholars have proposed in project appraisal are the use of the social benefit-cost analysis and investment criteria in resource allocation or the input analysis as sustainable techniques. But some scholars argue that the use of the market mechanism is a very important way of allocating resources using the price mechanism. The method uses market forces of demand and supply and the capacity of consumers to pay-off for the products on demand or supply. They further argue that the state can only come in to correct market imperfections when need arises to ensure the consumer gets the best price.
However, from the social view point, the best mechanism to use in the allocation of resources in public projects is the social benefit-cost analysis. This is because this technique looks at how the chosen project is likely to contribute significantly to the development of the total economy and how justifiable the use of scarce resources will be in that particular project. The view takes into account the contribution of the project to the economy as a whole not only to the particular investor’s interests. Some commercial projects are rejected when the maximisation of net income for the investor supersedes the costs of the project to society. According to Hassaballa (1987: 17), “both private and public projects must be appraised from the social benefit-cost analysis point of view to ascertain their likely contributions to society because even the use of resources from the private view point involve costs and benefits to a wider range of individuals than the private owner.” For example, a private project may pay taxes, provide employment for the otherwise unemployed and generate pollution. These are effects of social benefits and costs. It is on this basis that the social benefit-cost analysis is preferred in appraising both public and private projects to weigh project costs over its contributions to society’s welfare. The benefits (or costs) could be directly or indirectly like provision of road networks into areas that are non-proximity to the project area or pollution of water sources even in areas far away from the project area.
The Kafue Steel Plant was for example rejected by the Environment Council of Zambia on the basis that the Environmental (or Social) Impact Assessment for the project showed that its costs on society would be more than benefits. (However, the project was later approved based on short term political demands). According to Sadler at el (2000: 08), “the social impact assessment focuses on the social and cultural effects of development initiatives and decisions and their consequences on human populations, communities and individuals.” The assessment primarily aims at minimising the adverse effects that some projects may have on natural resources, the ecosystem and human beings. Such assessments are part of a broad based planning approach in project choice to ensure that development opportunities and options are adjusted to environmental potentials and capacities.
Campbell (2003: 10) claims that public projects should be thought in terms of the provision of physical capital in the form of infrastructure such as bridges, highways and dams. There are however other less obvious types of physical projects that augment environmental capital stocks and involves activities such as land reclamation, pollution control, fishery management, investment in forms of human capital like health, education and skills and social capital through drug-use and crime prevention and reduction of unemployment, (ibid). This shows that there are few, if any, activities of government that are not amenable to appraisal and evaluation by means of social benefit-cost analysis. Additionally, most scholars argue that economic efficiency measured as the difference between benefits and costs ought to be one of the fundamental criteria for evaluating proposal projects because society often has limited resources to carry all competing projects. In this regard, the social benefit-cost analysis can help illuminate the trade-offs involved in project choice in different types of social investments. That is, the mechanism is a project choice barometer on how scarce resources can be put to the greatest social good, (Arrow at el, 1997: 322). This means balancing of benefits and costs of the project to society can help to promote more efficient and effective project choice.
This entails that project analysts should consider the social patterns and practices of the clientele a project will serve. They should carefully examine the broader social implications of proposed investment by including its weights for income distribution in the analytical framework to ensure that the project benefits favour lower-income groups, (Gittinger 1984: 16). Ascertaining the impact of these benefits on society is not easy, hence public project choice is somewhat challenging than private projects. For a private commercial entrepreneur, project choice is determined by how best the project satisfies the project owner’s objectives. Such commercial projects have often been rejected by national planners (whose evaluation is beyond positive NPV) by looking at the big picture of society’s welfare in project choice.
National planners look at alternative projects that best satisfy the interests and objectives of the nation. This kind of planning is complex not only because defining national interests is problematic, but also because identifying these interests by different planners could be different. Furthermore, if different planners pursue different national objectives using different mechanism in project selection, the result may be unsatisfactory and conceivably disastrous. Therefore, the main reason of doing social benefit-cost analysis in project choice is to subject the process to a consistent set of general objectives of national policy. Thus, the choice of one project rather than the other must be viewed in the context of the total national impact, and that total impact should be evaluated in terms of a consistent and appropriate set of objectives.
For example, there was agitation to the sale of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) when the privatisation project took root in Zambia because the mining sector was the anchor of the country’s economy. Different national planners proposed particular views on how it was to be pursued. This was because ZCCM was a sensitive and critical enterprise in the country’s economy, and if the state surrendered such economic power to investors, the entire economy would crumble if the investors for example decided to shut down the mines because the realisable returns on the investment is lower than expected, (Matale, 1996: 03). Taking the social benefit-cost analysis as a yardstick, in line with government long-term objectives of bringing economic efficiency, extricating government’s involvement in running industries, and focus scarce resources on education, infrastructure, and other social welfares, the project was implemented. This enhanced the meeting of long-term government objectives of promoting growth of the private sector by leveling the playing field for better competition on the market. Additionally, it meant broadening share ownership so that the public has mechanisms for saving money and participating in the economies of the country. This was meant to broaden the country’s revenue base.
The broader national parameters planners used in opting to privatise ZCCM against the other view of keeping it under state control was based on long-term benefits of the project which were more than the costs it could bring to society. The project created confidence in the country’s policies that new investors injected their capital in different sectors of the economy. Foreign investors confidently invested their money in the country because a favourable environment for more investment was created. For example, following the pull-out of Anglo America Corporation from the running of ZCCM and its consequential privatisation, government identified Vedanta Resources Plc of India as the Strategic Equity Partner in Konkola Copper Mines Plc (KCM). And KCM embarked on key projects that have increased the life span of its mining activities to more than 30 years after the privatisation of ZCCM. The main projects KCM is developing are the Konkola Deep Mining Project (KDMP), the construction of the ultra modern Nchanga Smelter, Konkola Concentrator and the green field project, which is a new open pit mine called Fitwaola, (Ndumingu 2008:03). These expansion projects involve an investment capital of over US$1 billion. Currently, KCM is rated as one of the major contributors to Zambia’s tax base with an estimated tax of US$75-80 million per annum, (2007, Parliament Estimates).
Furthermore, Gittinger (1984: 37) states that the social benefit-cost analysis is cardinal in appraising any type of a project to ensure that the project builds-upon society’s objectives of increasing income generation and distribution to other areas of the economy. That is, the whole society mainly aims at broadening the national income base, which should be carefully distributed to increase the number of productive job opportunities. This means more jobs could be created in other beneficiary areas from the revenue generated by viable sectors. As a result the number of the unemployed would fall, hence reducing dependency in the country. The proportion of savings would thus increase, and there will be more to invest as households are able to save when dependency reduces. In addition, economic growth would be faster and there would be more income in future.
The other concerns of society to consider in project choice would be addressing broader issues than narrow economic considerations such as increasing regional integration, upgrading the general levels of education, improving rural health systems or safeguarding national food security, (ibid). Any of these objectives may lead to the choice of the project that would contribute more to national income. For example, to ensure food security in the country during the Structural Adjustment Programme phase, government engaged the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) in the supply of inputs (fertilizer and seeds) and credits to small-scale farmers through primary cooperatives and associations, (Nyanga 2006: 49). The project enable farmers to access inputs as most of them could not afford to buy at the market price since they were concentrated in rural areas where incidences of poverty were as high as 74%, (ibid). The government objective was to ensure food security in the country, tallying with millennium development goals’ overview of enhancing household capacity of accessing food in order to reduce malnutrition levels and other health issues.
Additionally, in recognition of high poverty levels in the country, government established the Fertilizer Support Programme and the Food Security Pack under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programmes (PRSP) as some of the five programmes meant to increase food production and enhance food security among small scale farmers in line with the PRSP, (PRSP 2002/04). The programmes were meant to service small scale farmers so that they improve farm productivity levels, enhance food security and ultimately reduce poverty. Although no evaluation was done to ascertain the project’s effectiveness, there was an increase in food production in the country during the 2002/04 farming seasons to 1, 424, 439 metric tonnes, (Post 2007: 11). This helped in minimise food prices in the country.
This entails that for a project to be meaningful, the social evaluation should be generally tied to factors of financial and economic appraisals. That is, a project cannot be expected to assist consumers in an area unless it improves the supply of a good or service at the price lower than the earlier one the product was offered. Since impacts of the project can be positive or negative, the affected people should be somehow compensated. For example, after the opening of Albidon Munali Nickel Mine in Mazabuka District, communities that were within the mining area were relocated to new areas where they were provided with farming inputs for five years and new housing units were built for them by the company (Radio Phoenix, 06:45 News 8th July 2008). Those that did not benefit directly got jobs at the mine in various sections of its operations. The company is also estimated to be contributing more than US$76 million to the government treasury when it starts full operation, (Post 2008: 12).
Negative social impacts of projects were also heavily felt during the privatisation project. According to Kaitisha (2008: 15), “… the pace at which the privatisation process was implemented was so quick that new firms had to hire labour…and this had repercussions of souring unemployment and destitution forcing government to form the Zambia Privatisation Trust Fund to facilitate share buying.” Additionally, through the establishment of Employee Share Ownership Plans by companies like Bonnita, Chilanga cement, Zambia Sugar and others that sold shares to management and employee buy-out teams, Zambian workers became shareholders in a number of profitable and growing privatised enterprises, (ibid). Furthermore, Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) created a platform tailored to the needs of smaller growth companies and shareholders called LuSE Alternative Investment Market to encourage local and foreign investment in shares. This initiative was meant to increase the availability of loanable funds to other business ventures in the country, which would reciprocate into more job opportunities.
An expansion on the level of employment or a reduction in unemployment is one of the most important measures of project choice. This is because employment impacts on two measures of project selection; consumption and income distribution. Since unemployment makes it difficult for people to have an income (thereby contributing nothing to income distribution and consumption), employment represents the most important measure of project benefits and selection. Income distribution comes in the equation when people have jobs from which they earn income, because they contribute to the national treasury through tax either directly or indirectly. This could be through pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) or value added tax (VAT) when they pay for goods or services they purchase or use. People also consume more when they earn an income and that raises their standard of living. The raise in the standard of living is equally a fundamental goal of national planning and this naturally includes project selection. The key way of measuring the standard of living is determining the level of aggregate consumption per head. When the aggregate level of consumption goes up, it shows that people are living better; and this determines whether the project is beneficial to society.
An increase in fuel prices is for example likely to reduce the consumption level of the commodity in the country. Consequently, the distribution of income will be poor as the purchasing power of the commodity by the majority will be eroded; hence their contribution to the national revenue through VAT reduces. The state also loses revenue realisable from road levy as few vehicles will be on the road. Therefore, since prices are influenced by demand and demand by income distribution, employment is cardinal in project selection. For example, in its broad strategic plans to enable the transport sector attain the overarching goal of improving fuel supply in the country; Zambia (in conjunction with the Tanzanian government) sought for funds to construct Tanzania-Zambia oil pipeline (TAZAMA) from Dar-es-salaam to Indeni Refinery in Ndola, (Babati 2007: 03). The project meant to improve the flow of crude oil in the country, which could consequently maintain fuel prices at manageable levels by the majority. This was in realisation that cost-effective fuel prices impact greatly on the standard of living of the majority in the country. That is, the consumption levels of goods and services reduce as suppliers have a tendency of passing the costs they incur to the consumer. The Zambian economy currently depends on TAZAMA for imports of crude oil for domestic use and export to neighbouring countries.
The TAZAMA project, which gave birth to Indeni oil refinery, has many economic impacts on the immediate vicinity of the project. The project provided employment to different types of workforces that were/are engaged in the construction and maintenance of the facilities of the project. In addition, Indeni refinery has some spiral effects on other industries that supply inputs to it and those that depend on its outputs for their production. For example, Zambia Electricity Corporation (zesco) supplies power to the plant, while Unilever use Indeni’s by-products in its production of Vaseline and other products. According to Graciela (1996: 124), “inter-sectoral costs and benefits that may arise from the proposed project should be considered and then ascertained in terms of how market prices of goods and services and factors of production would be adjusted in response to the project’s economic value to society at large.”
In the final analysis, project choice can be based on its contributions to the increase in physical production, which could be the most common benefit of society. For instance, an irrigation project that permits better water control so that farmers can obtain higher yields to improve food security would be selected. And a credit project can make inputs available for farmers to increase their production. According to www.sp.org, “…using the 2006-2010 Fifth National Development Plan, government has introduced the Agriculture Support Programme to support increased food security and income by promoting ‘Farming as a Business’ concept in Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern provinces through a process of facilitation, infrastructure improvement, capacity building and other support mechanisms relevant to the sector.” The selection of the project was also meant to increase home-consumption of agricultural products, which expands the project’s net benefit to the nation.
In some instances, project benefits could be in form of an improvement in the quality of the product. For example, the analysis of the Cattle Restocking Exercise, which was to extend loans to producers of exogenous cattle and supplied the Ministry of Cooperatives and Agriculture, was meant to increase cattle production for the benefit of local farmers within the vicinity of the restocking project, (FNDP 2006: 105). The project also meant to improve the supply of animal produce like milk and beef after the animal population has grown, which could consequently lead to a reduction in prices of these products. According to Gittinger (1984: 47), “price effects on the local markets are cardinal in project selection because when prices decrease because of the project; this is a gain to consumer surplus and has to be considered as a value of the project to society.” In this vein, the selection of the cattle restocking exercise took into account the benefits it would have on the welfare of society when weighed against costs.
A project can be chosen as profitable to society when the social benefits exceed its social costs, rather than its NPV being positive, Thirwall (2006: 316). For example, the displacement of local family households in the Lumwana Mine project was weighed against the benefits to be realised from the project in the country. According to Radio Phoenix (June 17th 2008: Face the Media), “the Lumwana Mine project will lead to a production of more than 3000 metric tonnes of copper per day and will create between 4,100-6,200 new jobs in North-Western province.” The project is also estimated to inject more than US$60 million per year into the nation treasury, (ibid). The project further resulted into the construction of new houses, guest houses and other auxiliary services like banking and communication services in order to enhance quick productivity in the area. Other benefits the project spurred are the creation of new job opportunities in businesses outside the project, better health care (to reduce infant mortality as a result of more rural clinics to cater for the company workforce), better nutrition, reduced incidence of waterborne diseases as a result of improved water supplies, national integration, or even national defense. Such benefits are real and reflect true values of the project.
CONCLUSION
Since the allocation of resources among crucial competing areas of the economy seriously challenges all global economies; projects provide an important means by which investment can be clarified and its benefits realised. This is virtually done in line with elaborated national plans meant to hasten economic growth and further various social objectives of the nation. The achievement of these national objectives can be hastened by project choice vis-à-vis social benefits and costs rather than a mere positive NPV. This means the selection of projects involves ascertaining the project that satisfies best interests of the public and national objectives. Virtually, the objectives of social choice are to maximise social gains. Therefore, project choice should take into account the effective project contributions to the whole society and whether those contributions justify the investment of scarce resources into that project. The selected project should be supportive by the public and should tally with the national economic policy. Thus, the social benefit-cost analysis is cardinal in project selection on the basis of net gains that translate to the whole society rather a positive NPV that has no real impact on people’s lives. Therefore, the investment chosen should stimulate productivity to satisfy the market demand, thus creating new employment opportunities to match the level of production. This will in turn increase consumption levels that can spur re-investment, hence improving income distribution in the country as the newly employed will buy more thus contributing to national treasury.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arrow K.J. at el 1997, Environmental and Development Economics: Is there a role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental Health and Safety Regulation? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Babati S. 2007, Economic Report of TAZAMA Oil Pipeline: Project Upgrading. Dodoma: African Development Fund.
Campbell H. 2003, Benefit-Cost Analysis: Financial and Economic Appraisal using Spread Sheet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gittinger J. P. 1984, Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects. Washington: World Bank.
Hansen J.R/UNIDO 1986, Guide to Practical Project Appraisal: Social Benefit-Cost Analysis in Developing Countries. IDI/SER H/31-Viena.
Hassabala H. O. 1987, Kenana Projects in the Context of Settlement Schemes in the Sudan. Khartoum: Economic and Social Research Bulletin 137.
Matale J. at el 1999, An Investigation of Linkages between the Zambian Economy and the Privatisation of the Mining Industry. Lusaka: Report Represented to Afronet.
Ministry of Finance and National Planning 2006, Fifth National Development Plan. Lusaka: MoFNP.
Ndumingu N. 2008, From Paper to People, Post Privatisation of ZCCM: The Case of KCM Expansion Projects. Lusaka: ZDA Vol 2. No.3.
Nyanga P. 2006, Impact of Agricultural Policy Changes on Household Food Security among Small-Scale Farmers in Southern Zambia. Oslo: Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Radio Phoenix 2008, 18: 00 Hours News. Lusaka.
Sadler B. at el 2000, Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for Large Dams. Cape Town: World Commission on Dams.
Thirwall A.P. 2006, Growth and Development: With Special Reference to Developing Economies. New York: Palgrave, McMillan.
Weiner S.C. 1964, The Long Man Encyclopedia (2nd Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
DEPARTMENT OF mass communication
NAME: Siachiyako Clive M.
COMP: 25020919
Lecturer: Mr. Mwanza V.
COURSE: Project Appraisal
COURSE CODE: 925
Due Date: Monday 14 July 2008
TASK: second Assignment
QUESTION: Using practical examples, critically analyse
The assertion that “in appraising projects, it is
Quite common nowadays to reject commercial
Profitability as a basis of planned project
Choice, but this causes a gap that social
Benefit-cost analysis has to fill and that the
Objective of social choice is to maximise social
Gains including the selection of public
Projects.”
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
ARE YOUTHS A MENACE?
SOME 10 years ago, in the wake of the tragic death of former Finance Minister, Ronald Penza, this writer penned an obituary in this same newspaper and the focus was on Penza’s days as a student activist at the University of Zambia (UNZA) in the early 1970s.
The spirit of the obituary was to eulogise the heroic role, which UNZA students historically played in fighting political oppression and bureaucratic intransigence. It meant to provide a voice for a voiceless citizenry that was prevailed upon by an-all-mighty State machinery prone to the arbitrary control of a clique of self-interested individuals.
During that period, Penza was secretary general of the University of Zambia Students’ Union (UNZASU), in which capacity he organised a march to the French Embassy in Lusaka, to protest against the French government’s decision to supply sophisticated military weapons, including Mirage fighter jets, to the apartheid regime of South Africa.
The students reckoned, and rightly so, that this high-handed move by the French would seriously set back the struggle for the liberation of southern Africa and spawn general political instability in the region. The then UNIP government, although principally in agreement with the students’ position, was understandably apprehensive about the political ramifications of this unbridled diplomatic assault on a major European power like France.
Therefore, even though UNIP and its government were then positioning themselves as the citadel of the regional liberation struggle, they forcibly blocked the student procession, with riot police being deployed for the purpose. Students, on their part, refused to budge, and what ensued was teargas, gunfire and mayhem, during which one student climbed the mast at the French Embassy and tore down that nation’s flag.
Whatever the political fall-out followed this violent confrontation, history has honoured those students as having, in their own rambunctious way, contributed to the long, tortuous process of dismantling the apartheid regime and liberating southern Africa.
In reflecting on the recent disturbances at UNZA, during which two students sustained police gunshot wounds while agitating for increased allowances, this writer could not help but marvel at how drastically the constitution of student militancy has evolved over the years.
The long and short lessons of the Penza obituary are that it can never be written for contemporary student activists. For Penza was a person whose reputation for student militancy was buttressed by a lofty pursuit of political and ideological ideals for the betterment of greater society!
The debate on the adequacy or inadequacy of student allowances without venturing into the highly-charged debate on the adequacy or inadequacy of student allowances is always fraught with undue emotions, intrigue and bureaucratic rigidity, in addition to being highly-charged.
In contemporary times, hardly a year goes by without news of student unrest at one or both of the country’s public universities (that’s discounting the new, yet to be baptised Mulungushi University).
Indeed, this perennial tale of woes has assumed such permanency that the problems at UNZA, and by extension the Copperbelt University (CBU), begin to look intractable and gain acceptance as some sort of inevitable nuisance to be lived with. This is not only an unfortunate but dangerous eventuality! The problem of student unrest, and other associated maladies, is a soluble one, if only all stakeholders could openly and honestly put their minds and energies to it!
Perhaps it would be worthwhile to examine the nature and background of student unrest in Zambia. Just how and why do ordinary, law-abiding boys and girls straight from grade 12 suddenly transform into rampaging, stone-throwing rioters?
During this author’s time as a student leader, he became fascinated by this question and embarked on a background research, which gleaned him interesting historical insights into student militancy at UNZA.
Planting the seed
In the fashion of most post-independence African states, generally characterised by a gravitation towards totalitarian modes of governance, the head-of-state also assumed direct headship or control of key state or parastatal institutions. Thus, in Zambia, the Republican president also became Chancellor of the University of Zambia. This arrangement was to spawn two unfortunate traditions, which persist to this day, and which in large part, account for the institution’s endless troubles in dispute resolution.
Firstly, all disputes at the institution - disputes which could be routinely resolved through ordinary bargaining and negotiation mechanisms within any organisation - found their way to the office of the Head-of-State, or the Chancellor, as the disputants always referred to him. Thus, emphasising his chosen role as the institution’s ultimate buck-stopper!
Therefore, State House became an extension of the university management, something akin to the board chairman of a company assuming the responsibility of signing salary cheques. The seat of republican authority thus, became a clearing house for the problems associated with the running of the university, be they about students, support staff, lecturers or management itself; and all these stakeholders naturally felt free to “seek an audience with the chancellor any time”.
This development had the unfortunate effect of rendering redundant, the established structures, systems and boundaries of managing the affairs of the university, both at institutional and ministerial levels.
Well thought-out long-term strategies as well as professionally crafted operational plans at these two levels could easily be dismissed with a presidential wave of the hand if political expediency beckoned.
Management of the university thus became something of an adhoc affair, dangling on the string of political largesse. To this day, it has to take the Republican president to step in and promise to “look for money” to bridge budgetary shortfalls for UNZA and CBU, as happened recently. It is also possible for the UNZASU president to demand an audience with the Head-of State, in order to discuss student allowances and police brutality.
The second aspect of the State-university arrangement was that the university, like all other key institutions, was seen by the political authority not as an independent entity with an autonomous mandate, namely the free and un-tethered pursuit of knowledge, but as an instrument for furthering the agenda of the politico-bureaucratic regime. In other words, the university was not supposed to generate or propagate any ideas or innovations outside of, inimical to, or contemptuous of, the political leadership’s ideological orientation.
But inevitably, mutual suspicion and often-outright hostility, developed between the State and the university. During that period of anti-imperialist hyper consciousness (which often-times approached stark paranoia), the UNIP government sought to have absolute control over anything that had potential to condition the thinking of citizens.
In the growing militancy and anti-establishment tendencies of UNZA students, therefore, government soon perceived a threat, which it ‘traced’ to Marxist propaganda purveyed by expatriate lecturers at the institution.
On its part, the university establishment strongly detested the overly patronising attitude of UNIP and government towards the university, which it saw as constraining its universally acknowledged mandate of providing an environment for free learning and objective generenable production at the plant to finally take off.
The spirit of the obituary was to eulogise the heroic role, which UNZA students historically played in fighting political oppression and bureaucratic intransigence. It meant to provide a voice for a voiceless citizenry that was prevailed upon by an-all-mighty State machinery prone to the arbitrary control of a clique of self-interested individuals.
During that period, Penza was secretary general of the University of Zambia Students’ Union (UNZASU), in which capacity he organised a march to the French Embassy in Lusaka, to protest against the French government’s decision to supply sophisticated military weapons, including Mirage fighter jets, to the apartheid regime of South Africa.
The students reckoned, and rightly so, that this high-handed move by the French would seriously set back the struggle for the liberation of southern Africa and spawn general political instability in the region. The then UNIP government, although principally in agreement with the students’ position, was understandably apprehensive about the political ramifications of this unbridled diplomatic assault on a major European power like France.
Therefore, even though UNIP and its government were then positioning themselves as the citadel of the regional liberation struggle, they forcibly blocked the student procession, with riot police being deployed for the purpose. Students, on their part, refused to budge, and what ensued was teargas, gunfire and mayhem, during which one student climbed the mast at the French Embassy and tore down that nation’s flag.
Whatever the political fall-out followed this violent confrontation, history has honoured those students as having, in their own rambunctious way, contributed to the long, tortuous process of dismantling the apartheid regime and liberating southern Africa.
In reflecting on the recent disturbances at UNZA, during which two students sustained police gunshot wounds while agitating for increased allowances, this writer could not help but marvel at how drastically the constitution of student militancy has evolved over the years.
The long and short lessons of the Penza obituary are that it can never be written for contemporary student activists. For Penza was a person whose reputation for student militancy was buttressed by a lofty pursuit of political and ideological ideals for the betterment of greater society!
The debate on the adequacy or inadequacy of student allowances without venturing into the highly-charged debate on the adequacy or inadequacy of student allowances is always fraught with undue emotions, intrigue and bureaucratic rigidity, in addition to being highly-charged.
In contemporary times, hardly a year goes by without news of student unrest at one or both of the country’s public universities (that’s discounting the new, yet to be baptised Mulungushi University).
Indeed, this perennial tale of woes has assumed such permanency that the problems at UNZA, and by extension the Copperbelt University (CBU), begin to look intractable and gain acceptance as some sort of inevitable nuisance to be lived with. This is not only an unfortunate but dangerous eventuality! The problem of student unrest, and other associated maladies, is a soluble one, if only all stakeholders could openly and honestly put their minds and energies to it!
Perhaps it would be worthwhile to examine the nature and background of student unrest in Zambia. Just how and why do ordinary, law-abiding boys and girls straight from grade 12 suddenly transform into rampaging, stone-throwing rioters?
During this author’s time as a student leader, he became fascinated by this question and embarked on a background research, which gleaned him interesting historical insights into student militancy at UNZA.
Planting the seed
In the fashion of most post-independence African states, generally characterised by a gravitation towards totalitarian modes of governance, the head-of-state also assumed direct headship or control of key state or parastatal institutions. Thus, in Zambia, the Republican president also became Chancellor of the University of Zambia. This arrangement was to spawn two unfortunate traditions, which persist to this day, and which in large part, account for the institution’s endless troubles in dispute resolution.
Firstly, all disputes at the institution - disputes which could be routinely resolved through ordinary bargaining and negotiation mechanisms within any organisation - found their way to the office of the Head-of-State, or the Chancellor, as the disputants always referred to him. Thus, emphasising his chosen role as the institution’s ultimate buck-stopper!
Therefore, State House became an extension of the university management, something akin to the board chairman of a company assuming the responsibility of signing salary cheques. The seat of republican authority thus, became a clearing house for the problems associated with the running of the university, be they about students, support staff, lecturers or management itself; and all these stakeholders naturally felt free to “seek an audience with the chancellor any time”.
This development had the unfortunate effect of rendering redundant, the established structures, systems and boundaries of managing the affairs of the university, both at institutional and ministerial levels.
Well thought-out long-term strategies as well as professionally crafted operational plans at these two levels could easily be dismissed with a presidential wave of the hand if political expediency beckoned.
Management of the university thus became something of an adhoc affair, dangling on the string of political largesse. To this day, it has to take the Republican president to step in and promise to “look for money” to bridge budgetary shortfalls for UNZA and CBU, as happened recently. It is also possible for the UNZASU president to demand an audience with the Head-of State, in order to discuss student allowances and police brutality.
The second aspect of the State-university arrangement was that the university, like all other key institutions, was seen by the political authority not as an independent entity with an autonomous mandate, namely the free and un-tethered pursuit of knowledge, but as an instrument for furthering the agenda of the politico-bureaucratic regime. In other words, the university was not supposed to generate or propagate any ideas or innovations outside of, inimical to, or contemptuous of, the political leadership’s ideological orientation.
But inevitably, mutual suspicion and often-outright hostility, developed between the State and the university. During that period of anti-imperialist hyper consciousness (which often-times approached stark paranoia), the UNIP government sought to have absolute control over anything that had potential to condition the thinking of citizens.
In the growing militancy and anti-establishment tendencies of UNZA students, therefore, government soon perceived a threat, which it ‘traced’ to Marxist propaganda purveyed by expatriate lecturers at the institution.
On its part, the university establishment strongly detested the overly patronising attitude of UNIP and government towards the university, which it saw as constraining its universally acknowledged mandate of providing an environment for free learning and objective generenable production at the plant to finally take off.
Times of Mgt; does it take youths interests on board?
History of the Times of Zambia
The Times of Zambia started as a newspaper called the Northern News which was established in 1943 and was owned by the Argus Company. The establishment of the Northern News was aimed at rationalizing the company’s activities in the country by making the newspaper play its full role as the country’s national daily newspaper. The Argus Company however, did not continue running the Northern Newspaper because in 1964 they sold it to the London Rhodesian Mining and Land Company (LONRHO). After the Kitwe Branch of Northern News was closed by its new owners, the Ndola Branch was not closed and all production continued from here.
LONRHO under its managing director, Roland Rowland renamed the Northern News to the Times of Zambia. The Times of Zambia first appeared on 30th June 1965. Apparently as part of the strategy to revamp the poor public image of the former Northern News, LONRHO also appointed as editor in chief Richard Hall, founder of the Pro-African and Pro-UNIP Central African Mail. Hall, whose appointment was welcomed by then President Kaunda, immediately set out to improve the newspaper’s public image by “Zambianising” it both in staff and content. He hired some black Zambian reporters and only recruited sub-editors with politically progressive views. The main thrust of the Times of Zambia under Hall was to vehemently oppose Ian Smith’s UDI in Southern Rhodesia, repeatedly calling on Harold Wilson’s Labour Government in Britain to bring it down by force.
At this time almost every other editorial in the newspaper was a diatribe against either Smith or Wilson or both. The stand of the Times of Zambia was sometimes the same as that of the Zambian government. For example President Kaunda once complimented the newspaper for its reporting of the Rhodesian UDI crisis. He told a rally he had publicly castigated the newspaper in the past, but on the Rhodesian situation it had done wonderfully well. Even though the government and the Times of Zambia seemed to be in good books, this was not entirely so because in 1965, the newspaper had declared that the government was acting foolishly to repeal the law that forbade demand of party cards. And when the law was repealed, the newspaper constantly opposed UNIP’s card checking campaigns in which people were asked to produce their UNIP cards before using public facilities like buses and markets.
In still another instance, the newspaper disagreed with UNIP national council that the big fire in Kitwe in 1966, in which fuel storage tanks were gutted, was caused by sabotage. By this year Hall had become so alienated to some members of the government that public attacks on the newspaper by the officials were becoming routine. To make matters worse, the newspaper generally published more editorials critical of the government of the ruling UNIP than it did in support of it. Finally the fact that the newspaper was foreign owned tended to magnify its criticisms of the government and UNIP. Thus the overall impression created was that the Times of Zambia was an anti government newspaper. Therefore, the government resented the Times of Zambia, especially its editor Hall and fearing that the newspaper might be banned, Hall resigned saying he was going on six months leave to write a book.
Dustan Kamana, the black Zambian who succeeded Hall proved even more outspoken. In the first six months of 1968, Kamana wrote far more editorials critical of the government than in support of it. Kamana was, indeed a ruthless and often sarcastic editorial writer. He regarded his role as that of an opposition to the government, since the African National Congress (ANC) was now so weak that it had even ceased to be the official opposition in parliament. Throughout 1969 the outspoken Kamana was, however, more favourable of the government than he was to UNIP as a party, in line with LONRHO policy for the newspaper to be in good books with the government. The following year he drastically reduced his criticism of the ruling party as well.
In early 1968, President Kaunda had nationalised several of the nation’s key industries in line with his philosophy of Humanism. In his Mulungushi Economic Reforms, President Kaunda announced that the state was going to purchase 51 percent controlling shares in the companies. He also invited LONRHO through Zambia Newspapers to sell 51 percent shares to the government. President Kaunda gave the following reason for wanting to buy the Times Zambia from LONRHO, he claimed that it was not right that the major means of informing the public should be under foreign control. He stated that he would be happier if at least 51 percent of Zambia Newspapers Ltd were in state ownership. President Kaunda, however, said that he did not intend that newspapers should be operated by Information Departments nor did he wish them to be run by state company. The president revealed that he was anxious under democracy and humanism to create some national body of truly Zambian organization which would operate these newspapers.
But LONRHO did not respond to his request until eight years later, in June 1975. In the meantime, the Times of Zambia and its weekend version the Sunday Times of Zambia continued to be outspoken independent newspapers under the editorship of Kamana. In 1971, after consultations with LONRHO, President Kaunda removed Kamana from the editorship of the Times of Zambia and replaced him with Vernon Mwaanga. Mwaanga was a career diplomat who had been Zambia’s permanent representative to the United Nations. Kamana later succeeded Mwaanga at the UN.
Since the buying of the 51 percent shares by the government, the Times of Zambia has been state owned and that is why it is called a parastatal company. The other 49 percent of shares are owned by the Times of Zambia itself through shareholding. This means that apart from the company itself, there are other members of the public who have bought and own some shares in the Times of Zambia.
The fact that the newspaper is government owned puts it in a tight corner when it comes to reporting politics, especially those that have to do with government interests. Whatever situation the newspaper finds itself in, it must ensure that its allegiance is always to the ruling party of the government or country at any given time. All this allegiance is as a result of the majority shareholding of the government.
Despite being a government owned newspaper, the Times of Zambia is not exempted from paying any tax as it has to make sure that it meets all the deadlines for paying taxes to avoid any unliked consequences.
Objectives and readership
The following are the objectives set by the Times of Zambia:
· To inform, entertain, and educate the public.
This is achieved by striving to report factual articles of the happenings in and outside the country
· To deliver news by attempting to reach as many parts of the country as possible
· Reach all the remotest parts of the country by trying to send the newspaper in the shortest possible time
· Make the newspaper simpler to read so that even people not very educated can manage to read and be informed
Even if the newspaper has put these objectives in place to ensure that operations continue going up, the sales have however shown that things are not as they would loved to be. The sales have drastically dropped from over 85 000 copies per day to just over 25, 000 copies per day. This has been attributed mainly to the hard economic times that many of the Zambians are going through.
This drop in sales has been recorded in the last ten years. Another reason said to cause this has been the proliferation of newspapers on the market. There are a good number of newspapers on the market nowadays unlike in the past when there were just a few papers competing for readership. The increased number of these newspapers has resulted in the people having a wide choice on which newspapers to buy.
Ownership
As already alluded to in the history of the Times of Zambia, it is a government owned newspaper. This is because of the 51 percent ownership of the shares that the government has in the newspaper.
Unlike its two counter part dailies, the Daily Mail and the Post newspapers which are printed in Lusaka, the Times of Zambia is printed in Ndola where it printing department has not been moved since its early days. But even though it is like this, the newspaper’s bigger market is in Lusaka where the larger part of the Zambian population is.
Format, Mood and Motto
The Times of Zambia is a broadsheet newspaper whose motto is “Forward With the Nation”.
The Times of Zambia like many other company’s that are interested in promoting the welfare of their employees has put in place a number of policies that dictate how certain things should be done at the work place. These policies are discussed below:
· Editorial Policy
The newspaper’s editorial policy is one that encourages that information, entertainment and education of its readers. In trying to uphold this policy the newspaper makes a must that it should carry articles that are always factual and well balanced.
Management at the Times of Zambia has also made it a policy to try and dispel the misconception among a lot of Zambians that they get instructions from the government about which stories to carry for each particular day. This is despite the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) being appointed by the republican president. This therefore means that the editorial team is a bit free of government control but there is practicing of self censorship because they are trying to protect their jobs.
The newspaper has however not been completely free of government control because according to the Sunday Times Editor, during the rule of former republican president, Dr. Frederick Chiluba, Richard Sakala who was then the presidential aid used to call once in a while to ask about certain stories that were supposed to be included in the following day’s edition.
· HIV and AIDS Policy
Apart from the editorial policy, the Times of Zambia has also put in place the HIV and AIDS policy. This policy aims sensitizing employees on the dangers of HIV and AIDS and also coordinate issues relating to the pandemic. One other thong worthy noting is that the newspaper is the second company in Zambia to have introduced this policy. The policy was made some three years ago but only got to be used on a regular in the year 2007. the Times of Zambia has employed full time coordinators who organize and arrange outreach programmes to assist employees who are both infected or affected in one way or the other by HIV and AIDS.
· Gender Policy
The Times of Zambia has also put in place a gender policy and this was introduced in 1997. There is one employee based in Ndola who is a gender activist but monitors the company’s activities in connection with these issues. The Times of Zambia applies this policy in the way it employees people to adhere to the Southern African Development community (SADC) recommendations to have at least 30 percent women in decision making positions in companies.
The newspaper has used this policy in the following manner: the chief sub-editor, the deputy chief editor, the assistant circulations manager and the deputy human resource manager are all women. These women are all in second positions with the hope that they will some time in the future take over these various positions after their men superiors are no longer in the positions.
It should however be noted that following the recommendations of the policy on the recruitment of more women in decision making positions does not however end her because there are plans to increase the number of women in the near future.
· Other Policies
It was however not discovered whether the Times of Zambia has other policies in place apart from those mentioned above.
Structure
Managing Editor
Clerks
Deputy Managing Editor
Accounts Clerks
News Editors on all the desks
Financial Manager
Legal Counsel
Chief Reporter
Senior Reporter
Deputy Editor
Chief Reporter
Senior Reporter
Deputy Editor
Sunday Times
Secretary
Reporters
Support Staff
Human Resource Manager
Training Manager
Reporters
Ratings
The functions of each of the above departments are as follows:
· Managing Editor
The managing Editor is the overall boss at the Times of Zambia. His duty is to ensure that the editors on the respective desks are coordinating their teams so that they produce the paper on time, and also to ensure stories are not containing anything that would spell trouble for the media house. He also attends to other important matters outside the office that concern the newspaper’s well being. The managing also ensures that everything is order for the newspaper to run successfully on a day to day basis.
· Deputy Managing Editor
The deputy managing editor is the second in command at the newspaper and assists the managing editor. He also acts as the boss the managing director is not around. This one also works on things that ensures smooth running of the paper and does things delegated to him. The deputy managing editor is also the one who reads through the stories usually to make sure only those that are good for the newspaper are used and is consulted on regular basis by the editors on all the respective desks of the Times of Zambia.
· News Editors
News editors receive the stories from the reporters and go through them to edit them for any grammatical errors and ethical issues. They also ensure that the articles are handed in before the deadline so that they following day’s edition is ready in good time so that sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed in to the printing department. The editors also make sure they assign responsibilities to the reporters according to their abilities and experience.
· Deputy Editors
Deputy Editors assist the editors on the different desks of the Times of Zambia. These people also coordinate the reporters on behalf of their editors. The deputy editors are the ones who go through the news stories brought in by the reporters for that day so that they lessen the work of the editors.
· Chief Reporters
The chief reporters are the one who presides over the diary meetings for the different desks at the Times of Zambia. These ones also assist the Deputy Editors give assignments to the reporters according to their ability and experience.
· Senior Reporters
The senior reporters help coordinate the other reporters, especially news ones who still do not understand the way the news room is run. They also assist the new reporter with how to write god articles that are of the required standard.
· Reporters
Reporters have the duty of presenting workable news ideas and going out into the field to get stories that are needed for the following day’s edition of the newspaper. They are also required to do stories that will be able to attract readers and be better than those carried by their competitors.
· Human Resource Manager
The Human Resource’s main task is to look a issues of recruiting staff and work ways of improving staff development. They receive reports about which departments are understaffed so that they can work out the modalities of recruiting new personnel. And when need be they also consider issues of dismissing workers for different reasons according to the newspaper’s work guidelines.
· Support Staffs
Support staffs are people like the office orderlies, sweepers and other general workers. Their main duty is to ensure that the surrounding and the inside of the Times of Zambia are conducive and appealing.
· Financial Manager
The financial manager deals with the funds that are at the Times of Zambia. Their main deputy is to ensure that all funds are used appropriately where they are needed and people’s salaries and their monies are available whenever they are needed.
· Clerks
The clerks assist the financial manager in organising the accounts books and giving out the money. They also make sure that whoever gets money from the accounts department has signed for it so that there are no irregularities when the time for auditing the newspaper accounts arrives.
· Legal Counsel
The job of the legal counsel is to ensure that all the legal maters of the newspaper are taken care of and all the workers are educated on the need of observing legally implicating issues. This is particularly important for the reporters to make sure that they do not write stories that would result in legal cases against the Times of Zambia.
· Secretaries
The secretaries in the different departments serve as the link between the officials and members of the public. These also sit in during important meetings to take down meetings and document them for future reference. The secretaries also work as personal assistants to some of the officials.
· Sunday Times Editor
The Sunday Times Editor receives stories from the reporters on his desk and goes through them to edit them for any grammatical errors and ethical issues. He also ensures that the articles are handed in before the deadline so that the following Sunday’s edition is ready in good time so that sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed in to the printing department. The editors also make sure they assign responsibilities to the reporters according to their abilities and experience.
Ratings
The ratings for the Times of Zambia in terms of sales have in the recent past been declining from selling over 85, 000 copies of the newspaper per day to selling just over 25, 000 copies per day. This figure was reached at not through guess work but through actual research conducted by the parastatal. Every five years, the Times of Zambia carries out a market survey to determine its sales are increasing, remaining static or decreasing, and this was what was done to discover that newspaper sales were reducing and what was causing it.
This same survey, which is carried out by the Marketing Department at the newspaper also shows many copies have been sold from the print order for each particular day. These figures are based on demand from people who sell the newspaper who also depend on the demand for the newspaper made by the readers. What the surveys have also revealed is that the Times of Zambia also has a bigger share of the advertisers because of the reputation it has developed for itself over the years as a newspaper that reports news that is of interest and also that it reaches nearly the whole of the country.
Main Advertiser
The Times of Zambia has a number of advertisers and some of the main advertisers are cellular network providers, Cell Z, MTN and Celtel. Others are satellite TV providers like GTV and DSTV, while commercial banks also have their own share of advertising space in the newspaper. These big companies advertise in the Times of Zambia almost on a daily basis, with some of them even paying for full page adverts. An interesting thing about the newspaper is that even if it is government owned, the government advertises in it on a regular basis, but not for free because all the government’s adverts are paid for. The government does this in a bid to encourage the Times of Zambia to raise its own finances and not to depend on the government for donations.
· Which Audience
All these adverts that are carried in the Times of Zambia are intended for different audiences. It can not be said that they are meant for specific audiences because for example, the satellite TV providers are targeting an audience that is not similar to that being targeted by commercial banks, even if they might be found in the same communities. The adverts are also sometimes aimed at members of the readership of different ages. What also determines which day some of these adverts are carried greatly depends on the projected class of readers for that particular day. For example, adverts that have matters concerning family life would most likely be carried on weekends because this is the time when it is projected that the whole family is at home at the same time and they might get the chance to read the paper together.
· Breaking Through or Drowning
The fact that the Times of Zambia is state owned does not mean that it depends on handouts from the government. On the contrary, no amount of money is allocated to it in the national budget. This is unlike during the years when Dr. Kaunda was still the president. During these years the Times of Zambia was entitled to an amount of money from the government to assist in its operations. This is however no longer the case because, the government has withdrawn this funding and the newspaper now has to survive on its own. The withdrawal of this funding is due to the profit the newspaper makes from sales and advertising.
The Times of Zambia is a newspaper that is managing to break even, and this means that it is surviving and not drowning in any way. The newspaper manages to raise about K3 billion from advertising alone without including that funds raised from subscriptions.
Kind of Technology
The technology being used at the Times of Zambia is computerized. With the use of this computerized technology, the Ndola and Lusaka branches with all the bureau offices across the country are connected on a direct network. This therefore makes it easy to send news articles from one office to the other immediately instead of relying on the slowness of email services.
This fully fledged computerized system did however appear as a feature of the way the newspaper is run only in the recent past. The newspaper was until some time in 1999 still using type writers and some other old equipment. The only people at this time who were using computers were the sub-editors because of the need to have the newspaper pages layed out on computer using the necessary computer software. The machinery in the printing department in Ndola is however very old and semi computerized and this makers printing quite difficult to do especially colour printing.
A good thing however is that by the time the information for this paper was being collected, the Managing Editor at the Times of Zambia was in China making consultations on the type of printing press that is of good quality for a big newspaper like this one. The machinery being sought in China was supposed to be fully computerized so that the newspaper could also start printing in colour like its two counterpart dailies, the Daily Mail and the Post. The Times of Zambia has managed to raise part of the cost for the printing press and with the assistance of the government the machinery could be acquired by March this year.
Expansion
The newspaper has plans of expanding its services across the country. For example, once this colour printing press is brought into the country, the newspaper plans on increasing its circulation and also on the number of advertisements it carries in each edition. The newspaper also intends on enlarging its courier services so that many people can be sending different things from one part of the country to the next in the shortest period of time.
Other Special Features
Other special features found at the Times of Zambia were the clean environment in which operations are done at their Lusaka offices. The outside of the Times of Zambia building on Freedom Way is some kind of eye sore but the picture is a different one once one enters the premises. The newspaper has some of the latest office equipment being used with a floor that is nicely carpeted. Even the air conditioners at the newspaper are the latest with all the old and ugly heavy ones having been removed some time back.
Recommendations
For the Times of Zambia to achieve more from its set objectives there is need to for more effort to be invested in the application of the already existing objectives and goals on the one hand while on the other hand, there is need for adjustments to be made and if possible new ones all together.
The following suggestions if followed and adhered to can obviously bring about more to the results and success that the newspaper is already enjoying. This concept of a business plan could be pursued as the Times of Zambia tries to acquire the largest share of the readers in the country as compared to its two daily competitors, the Zambia Daily Mail and The Post newspapers.
Business concept
The management at the Times of Zambia should explicitly re-examine what the purpose of the newspaper is on the local information communication and entertainment scene. This purpose should be clearly identified to make it easier for would be clients. The newspaper’s mission statement and values are also an integral determinant of its success or failure and these should also be identified with ease without having to labour. This is important because in the world of today, customers will not be willing to waste time looking for obvious things which they can not easily see instead of going to a competitor whose mission and values are clear from the first impression they create.
The product that is produced by the Times of Zambia and the customer should be compatible. There is no need of the Times of Zambia coming up with products that do not even fall in any category of its audience classification. This therefore, means that the newspaper should design conditions for opportunities that would be readily received by its target audience and accepted as the norm of doing business with the Times of Zambia and thereby creating a unique identity for it.
Management team
All those who are vying to be given responsibilities at the managerial level should be people who are adequately qualified to do the job and ensure that the results are seen and consequently effecting change for the newspaper. Another cardinal fact that has to be remembered is that members of the management team as individuals have their strengths and weaknesses. This could be used to the newspaper’s advantage through the combining of all the strengths to come up with a strong leading pack. This point should however ensure that the weaknesses are not ignored because they might come up in one way or another, so the important thing is to lay them out on the table so that needed remedial action can be taken to assist individuals.
Members of the management team should also be clearly told about their tasks, duties and responsibilities so that they avoid encroaching in other people’s fields or operation to prevent unnecessary confrontations and thereby impeding any progress made on the achievement of the objectives of the Times of zambia. Another topic that is usually of interest and concern to any member of an organization is the salary and compensation structure. People should be informed about the amount of money that is due to them before they commence their tasks to avoid any disputes in the future. A good salary and compensation structure will result in a very highly motivated workforce that will be looking forward to the next day of doing business for the newspaper.
Market Research and Analysis
The Times off Zambia’s market size needs to be measured again to determine whether it is growing, reducing or remaining static. Market conditions and characteristics should be carefully examined so that the right time of undertaking an activity or putting a new product on the market can be established so that misfiring is avoided. This should also take into account the market trends and changes, target specific so specific products and services and expected market. Demand for goods or services being provided by the Times of zambia should be accurately measured so that the right amount can be sent out at the right time, keeping in mind to avoid too little to keep the audience frustrated and not too much to keep them bored with the same things all the time.
Industry Research and Analysis
The industry life cycle stage should be critically analysed so that the management and other departments and sections operating at the Times of Zambia can spearhead progress and achieve their desired goals and objectives. Key industry characteristics have to be studied and also keep a keen eye on other competing businesses operating within the industry and their key success factors. After looking at their key success factors, which are usually kept away from their competitors, the Times of Zambia management should the try to adopt some of them and modify them to produce more and better results.
Forces, trends and changes shaping the industry, competitive forces shaping the industry and competition shaping the industry are all elements that require critical scrutiny and analysis to make a bigger and better plan to counter act these for positive results to be seen and achieved.
Products or Service
Competitive advantage is a must for any organization to successfully fend off any existing competitors and remain the number one priority of the audience and this is a fact that the Times of Zambia needs to acknowledge and exploit to the maximum. Customer benefits and value should be made known to all the customers so that it is easy for them to invest their in reading the paper and resources knowing that their efforts are not going to waste.
This requires that product or life cycle stage is explained after research and development activities have been successfully done and completed. All this should however take into consideration the legal issues behind any activity and likely consequences and long court cases that follow thereafter.
Operation and Production Plan
The operation plan should include the following elements, technical description of the product or service that the newspaper is offering to its audience and readership, development stage and costs, distribution and logistics, product requirements and quality control measures.
Marketing Plan
The marketing department should ensure that they adhere strictly to the ethics of marketing to see their labour produce fruits, and the goals and objectives aimed. They should come up with a proper and concrete pricing strategy, promotion strategy, distribution networks which will enable them distribute all the needed information about the Times of Zambia and why they need to be regular readers of the newspaper and also why they need to invest their hard earned K3, 000 in buying the paper. That is why they to employ a very good and strategic marketing stance. Finally, the sales and marketing team should be adequately and appropriately trained to know what their job description is so that they bring the business that will raise revenue needed to run the newspaper. In this area, like many other specialised areas, there is simply no room for trail and error.
Organisational Structure
Organisational structure should also follow the philosophy of upper management, which requires management to observe key positions while at the same time delegating individual and group responsibilities. In this structure strategy there should also concern taken to remember that upholding the compensation plan and incentives to keep all players at all levels of the organistaion structure are content with their tasks and looking forward to the following day when they would have to report for work to engage in their tasks once more.
Another cardinal point not to be brushed aside is the reporting methods and interpersonal communication at the different levels in the organizational structure. All the employees should clearly know who their respective superiors are and whom they report to. Those at the top of the rank should keep in mind that they need to keep the doors of communication with their juniors open at all times and also be willing to receive correction when it is due and suggestions where appropriate.
Growth Plan
Management at the Times of Zambia and all stakeholders should take a keen interest in seeing whether the newspaper is growing, remaining static or diminishing in its influence and popularity. An internal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses must be done and the likely results critically analysed and better recommendations made, which should be willingly accepted by those in positions of responsibility and implementation.
External analysis should also be done. This one will look at opportunities that are already available and new ones that can be explored to expand the Times of Zambia. Threat from other competing newspapers should also be taken seriously with new ideas being forwarded to counter these competitors’ moves. Contingency plan(s) should also be formulated to prevent unnecessary stoppages of work or poor product and service delivery.
Management has to ensure that these contingency plans are on stand by all times to avoid things like claiming that they do not have the latest printing machinery that have not been producing a newspaper that is of good quality. If they have effective contingency plans, they can easily do everything that the public wants to prevent them from appearing like they are a government mouthpiece which just favours those in the ruling party. The Times of Zambia management should also look for more keen stakeholders aside from those that are already present to invest in the newspaper to see some of their goals and objectives a reality.
For better selling of the newspaper, the Times of Zambia should consider re-introducing the door to door delivery system that was proposed in the 1980s. This system involved readers of the newspaper subscribing to the newspaper and having editions delivered to their door steps for free by a Times of Zambia vehicle. This system will allow more people to subscribe because they would not have to go to the streets where vendors are found.
The Times of Zambia started as a newspaper called the Northern News which was established in 1943 and was owned by the Argus Company. The establishment of the Northern News was aimed at rationalizing the company’s activities in the country by making the newspaper play its full role as the country’s national daily newspaper. The Argus Company however, did not continue running the Northern Newspaper because in 1964 they sold it to the London Rhodesian Mining and Land Company (LONRHO). After the Kitwe Branch of Northern News was closed by its new owners, the Ndola Branch was not closed and all production continued from here.
LONRHO under its managing director, Roland Rowland renamed the Northern News to the Times of Zambia. The Times of Zambia first appeared on 30th June 1965. Apparently as part of the strategy to revamp the poor public image of the former Northern News, LONRHO also appointed as editor in chief Richard Hall, founder of the Pro-African and Pro-UNIP Central African Mail. Hall, whose appointment was welcomed by then President Kaunda, immediately set out to improve the newspaper’s public image by “Zambianising” it both in staff and content. He hired some black Zambian reporters and only recruited sub-editors with politically progressive views. The main thrust of the Times of Zambia under Hall was to vehemently oppose Ian Smith’s UDI in Southern Rhodesia, repeatedly calling on Harold Wilson’s Labour Government in Britain to bring it down by force.
At this time almost every other editorial in the newspaper was a diatribe against either Smith or Wilson or both. The stand of the Times of Zambia was sometimes the same as that of the Zambian government. For example President Kaunda once complimented the newspaper for its reporting of the Rhodesian UDI crisis. He told a rally he had publicly castigated the newspaper in the past, but on the Rhodesian situation it had done wonderfully well. Even though the government and the Times of Zambia seemed to be in good books, this was not entirely so because in 1965, the newspaper had declared that the government was acting foolishly to repeal the law that forbade demand of party cards. And when the law was repealed, the newspaper constantly opposed UNIP’s card checking campaigns in which people were asked to produce their UNIP cards before using public facilities like buses and markets.
In still another instance, the newspaper disagreed with UNIP national council that the big fire in Kitwe in 1966, in which fuel storage tanks were gutted, was caused by sabotage. By this year Hall had become so alienated to some members of the government that public attacks on the newspaper by the officials were becoming routine. To make matters worse, the newspaper generally published more editorials critical of the government of the ruling UNIP than it did in support of it. Finally the fact that the newspaper was foreign owned tended to magnify its criticisms of the government and UNIP. Thus the overall impression created was that the Times of Zambia was an anti government newspaper. Therefore, the government resented the Times of Zambia, especially its editor Hall and fearing that the newspaper might be banned, Hall resigned saying he was going on six months leave to write a book.
Dustan Kamana, the black Zambian who succeeded Hall proved even more outspoken. In the first six months of 1968, Kamana wrote far more editorials critical of the government than in support of it. Kamana was, indeed a ruthless and often sarcastic editorial writer. He regarded his role as that of an opposition to the government, since the African National Congress (ANC) was now so weak that it had even ceased to be the official opposition in parliament. Throughout 1969 the outspoken Kamana was, however, more favourable of the government than he was to UNIP as a party, in line with LONRHO policy for the newspaper to be in good books with the government. The following year he drastically reduced his criticism of the ruling party as well.
In early 1968, President Kaunda had nationalised several of the nation’s key industries in line with his philosophy of Humanism. In his Mulungushi Economic Reforms, President Kaunda announced that the state was going to purchase 51 percent controlling shares in the companies. He also invited LONRHO through Zambia Newspapers to sell 51 percent shares to the government. President Kaunda gave the following reason for wanting to buy the Times Zambia from LONRHO, he claimed that it was not right that the major means of informing the public should be under foreign control. He stated that he would be happier if at least 51 percent of Zambia Newspapers Ltd were in state ownership. President Kaunda, however, said that he did not intend that newspapers should be operated by Information Departments nor did he wish them to be run by state company. The president revealed that he was anxious under democracy and humanism to create some national body of truly Zambian organization which would operate these newspapers.
But LONRHO did not respond to his request until eight years later, in June 1975. In the meantime, the Times of Zambia and its weekend version the Sunday Times of Zambia continued to be outspoken independent newspapers under the editorship of Kamana. In 1971, after consultations with LONRHO, President Kaunda removed Kamana from the editorship of the Times of Zambia and replaced him with Vernon Mwaanga. Mwaanga was a career diplomat who had been Zambia’s permanent representative to the United Nations. Kamana later succeeded Mwaanga at the UN.
Since the buying of the 51 percent shares by the government, the Times of Zambia has been state owned and that is why it is called a parastatal company. The other 49 percent of shares are owned by the Times of Zambia itself through shareholding. This means that apart from the company itself, there are other members of the public who have bought and own some shares in the Times of Zambia.
The fact that the newspaper is government owned puts it in a tight corner when it comes to reporting politics, especially those that have to do with government interests. Whatever situation the newspaper finds itself in, it must ensure that its allegiance is always to the ruling party of the government or country at any given time. All this allegiance is as a result of the majority shareholding of the government.
Despite being a government owned newspaper, the Times of Zambia is not exempted from paying any tax as it has to make sure that it meets all the deadlines for paying taxes to avoid any unliked consequences.
Objectives and readership
The following are the objectives set by the Times of Zambia:
· To inform, entertain, and educate the public.
This is achieved by striving to report factual articles of the happenings in and outside the country
· To deliver news by attempting to reach as many parts of the country as possible
· Reach all the remotest parts of the country by trying to send the newspaper in the shortest possible time
· Make the newspaper simpler to read so that even people not very educated can manage to read and be informed
Even if the newspaper has put these objectives in place to ensure that operations continue going up, the sales have however shown that things are not as they would loved to be. The sales have drastically dropped from over 85 000 copies per day to just over 25, 000 copies per day. This has been attributed mainly to the hard economic times that many of the Zambians are going through.
This drop in sales has been recorded in the last ten years. Another reason said to cause this has been the proliferation of newspapers on the market. There are a good number of newspapers on the market nowadays unlike in the past when there were just a few papers competing for readership. The increased number of these newspapers has resulted in the people having a wide choice on which newspapers to buy.
Ownership
As already alluded to in the history of the Times of Zambia, it is a government owned newspaper. This is because of the 51 percent ownership of the shares that the government has in the newspaper.
Unlike its two counter part dailies, the Daily Mail and the Post newspapers which are printed in Lusaka, the Times of Zambia is printed in Ndola where it printing department has not been moved since its early days. But even though it is like this, the newspaper’s bigger market is in Lusaka where the larger part of the Zambian population is.
Format, Mood and Motto
The Times of Zambia is a broadsheet newspaper whose motto is “Forward With the Nation”.
The Times of Zambia like many other company’s that are interested in promoting the welfare of their employees has put in place a number of policies that dictate how certain things should be done at the work place. These policies are discussed below:
· Editorial Policy
The newspaper’s editorial policy is one that encourages that information, entertainment and education of its readers. In trying to uphold this policy the newspaper makes a must that it should carry articles that are always factual and well balanced.
Management at the Times of Zambia has also made it a policy to try and dispel the misconception among a lot of Zambians that they get instructions from the government about which stories to carry for each particular day. This is despite the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) being appointed by the republican president. This therefore means that the editorial team is a bit free of government control but there is practicing of self censorship because they are trying to protect their jobs.
The newspaper has however not been completely free of government control because according to the Sunday Times Editor, during the rule of former republican president, Dr. Frederick Chiluba, Richard Sakala who was then the presidential aid used to call once in a while to ask about certain stories that were supposed to be included in the following day’s edition.
· HIV and AIDS Policy
Apart from the editorial policy, the Times of Zambia has also put in place the HIV and AIDS policy. This policy aims sensitizing employees on the dangers of HIV and AIDS and also coordinate issues relating to the pandemic. One other thong worthy noting is that the newspaper is the second company in Zambia to have introduced this policy. The policy was made some three years ago but only got to be used on a regular in the year 2007. the Times of Zambia has employed full time coordinators who organize and arrange outreach programmes to assist employees who are both infected or affected in one way or the other by HIV and AIDS.
· Gender Policy
The Times of Zambia has also put in place a gender policy and this was introduced in 1997. There is one employee based in Ndola who is a gender activist but monitors the company’s activities in connection with these issues. The Times of Zambia applies this policy in the way it employees people to adhere to the Southern African Development community (SADC) recommendations to have at least 30 percent women in decision making positions in companies.
The newspaper has used this policy in the following manner: the chief sub-editor, the deputy chief editor, the assistant circulations manager and the deputy human resource manager are all women. These women are all in second positions with the hope that they will some time in the future take over these various positions after their men superiors are no longer in the positions.
It should however be noted that following the recommendations of the policy on the recruitment of more women in decision making positions does not however end her because there are plans to increase the number of women in the near future.
· Other Policies
It was however not discovered whether the Times of Zambia has other policies in place apart from those mentioned above.
Structure
Managing Editor
Clerks
Deputy Managing Editor
Accounts Clerks
News Editors on all the desks
Financial Manager
Legal Counsel
Chief Reporter
Senior Reporter
Deputy Editor
Chief Reporter
Senior Reporter
Deputy Editor
Sunday Times
Secretary
Reporters
Support Staff
Human Resource Manager
Training Manager
Reporters
Ratings
The functions of each of the above departments are as follows:
· Managing Editor
The managing Editor is the overall boss at the Times of Zambia. His duty is to ensure that the editors on the respective desks are coordinating their teams so that they produce the paper on time, and also to ensure stories are not containing anything that would spell trouble for the media house. He also attends to other important matters outside the office that concern the newspaper’s well being. The managing also ensures that everything is order for the newspaper to run successfully on a day to day basis.
· Deputy Managing Editor
The deputy managing editor is the second in command at the newspaper and assists the managing editor. He also acts as the boss the managing director is not around. This one also works on things that ensures smooth running of the paper and does things delegated to him. The deputy managing editor is also the one who reads through the stories usually to make sure only those that are good for the newspaper are used and is consulted on regular basis by the editors on all the respective desks of the Times of Zambia.
· News Editors
News editors receive the stories from the reporters and go through them to edit them for any grammatical errors and ethical issues. They also ensure that the articles are handed in before the deadline so that they following day’s edition is ready in good time so that sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed in to the printing department. The editors also make sure they assign responsibilities to the reporters according to their abilities and experience.
· Deputy Editors
Deputy Editors assist the editors on the different desks of the Times of Zambia. These people also coordinate the reporters on behalf of their editors. The deputy editors are the ones who go through the news stories brought in by the reporters for that day so that they lessen the work of the editors.
· Chief Reporters
The chief reporters are the one who presides over the diary meetings for the different desks at the Times of Zambia. These ones also assist the Deputy Editors give assignments to the reporters according to their ability and experience.
· Senior Reporters
The senior reporters help coordinate the other reporters, especially news ones who still do not understand the way the news room is run. They also assist the new reporter with how to write god articles that are of the required standard.
· Reporters
Reporters have the duty of presenting workable news ideas and going out into the field to get stories that are needed for the following day’s edition of the newspaper. They are also required to do stories that will be able to attract readers and be better than those carried by their competitors.
· Human Resource Manager
The Human Resource’s main task is to look a issues of recruiting staff and work ways of improving staff development. They receive reports about which departments are understaffed so that they can work out the modalities of recruiting new personnel. And when need be they also consider issues of dismissing workers for different reasons according to the newspaper’s work guidelines.
· Support Staffs
Support staffs are people like the office orderlies, sweepers and other general workers. Their main duty is to ensure that the surrounding and the inside of the Times of Zambia are conducive and appealing.
· Financial Manager
The financial manager deals with the funds that are at the Times of Zambia. Their main deputy is to ensure that all funds are used appropriately where they are needed and people’s salaries and their monies are available whenever they are needed.
· Clerks
The clerks assist the financial manager in organising the accounts books and giving out the money. They also make sure that whoever gets money from the accounts department has signed for it so that there are no irregularities when the time for auditing the newspaper accounts arrives.
· Legal Counsel
The job of the legal counsel is to ensure that all the legal maters of the newspaper are taken care of and all the workers are educated on the need of observing legally implicating issues. This is particularly important for the reporters to make sure that they do not write stories that would result in legal cases against the Times of Zambia.
· Secretaries
The secretaries in the different departments serve as the link between the officials and members of the public. These also sit in during important meetings to take down meetings and document them for future reference. The secretaries also work as personal assistants to some of the officials.
· Sunday Times Editor
The Sunday Times Editor receives stories from the reporters on his desk and goes through them to edit them for any grammatical errors and ethical issues. He also ensures that the articles are handed in before the deadline so that the following Sunday’s edition is ready in good time so that sub-editors have enough time to lay out the pages that will be handed in to the printing department. The editors also make sure they assign responsibilities to the reporters according to their abilities and experience.
Ratings
The ratings for the Times of Zambia in terms of sales have in the recent past been declining from selling over 85, 000 copies of the newspaper per day to selling just over 25, 000 copies per day. This figure was reached at not through guess work but through actual research conducted by the parastatal. Every five years, the Times of Zambia carries out a market survey to determine its sales are increasing, remaining static or decreasing, and this was what was done to discover that newspaper sales were reducing and what was causing it.
This same survey, which is carried out by the Marketing Department at the newspaper also shows many copies have been sold from the print order for each particular day. These figures are based on demand from people who sell the newspaper who also depend on the demand for the newspaper made by the readers. What the surveys have also revealed is that the Times of Zambia also has a bigger share of the advertisers because of the reputation it has developed for itself over the years as a newspaper that reports news that is of interest and also that it reaches nearly the whole of the country.
Main Advertiser
The Times of Zambia has a number of advertisers and some of the main advertisers are cellular network providers, Cell Z, MTN and Celtel. Others are satellite TV providers like GTV and DSTV, while commercial banks also have their own share of advertising space in the newspaper. These big companies advertise in the Times of Zambia almost on a daily basis, with some of them even paying for full page adverts. An interesting thing about the newspaper is that even if it is government owned, the government advertises in it on a regular basis, but not for free because all the government’s adverts are paid for. The government does this in a bid to encourage the Times of Zambia to raise its own finances and not to depend on the government for donations.
· Which Audience
All these adverts that are carried in the Times of Zambia are intended for different audiences. It can not be said that they are meant for specific audiences because for example, the satellite TV providers are targeting an audience that is not similar to that being targeted by commercial banks, even if they might be found in the same communities. The adverts are also sometimes aimed at members of the readership of different ages. What also determines which day some of these adverts are carried greatly depends on the projected class of readers for that particular day. For example, adverts that have matters concerning family life would most likely be carried on weekends because this is the time when it is projected that the whole family is at home at the same time and they might get the chance to read the paper together.
· Breaking Through or Drowning
The fact that the Times of Zambia is state owned does not mean that it depends on handouts from the government. On the contrary, no amount of money is allocated to it in the national budget. This is unlike during the years when Dr. Kaunda was still the president. During these years the Times of Zambia was entitled to an amount of money from the government to assist in its operations. This is however no longer the case because, the government has withdrawn this funding and the newspaper now has to survive on its own. The withdrawal of this funding is due to the profit the newspaper makes from sales and advertising.
The Times of Zambia is a newspaper that is managing to break even, and this means that it is surviving and not drowning in any way. The newspaper manages to raise about K3 billion from advertising alone without including that funds raised from subscriptions.
Kind of Technology
The technology being used at the Times of Zambia is computerized. With the use of this computerized technology, the Ndola and Lusaka branches with all the bureau offices across the country are connected on a direct network. This therefore makes it easy to send news articles from one office to the other immediately instead of relying on the slowness of email services.
This fully fledged computerized system did however appear as a feature of the way the newspaper is run only in the recent past. The newspaper was until some time in 1999 still using type writers and some other old equipment. The only people at this time who were using computers were the sub-editors because of the need to have the newspaper pages layed out on computer using the necessary computer software. The machinery in the printing department in Ndola is however very old and semi computerized and this makers printing quite difficult to do especially colour printing.
A good thing however is that by the time the information for this paper was being collected, the Managing Editor at the Times of Zambia was in China making consultations on the type of printing press that is of good quality for a big newspaper like this one. The machinery being sought in China was supposed to be fully computerized so that the newspaper could also start printing in colour like its two counterpart dailies, the Daily Mail and the Post. The Times of Zambia has managed to raise part of the cost for the printing press and with the assistance of the government the machinery could be acquired by March this year.
Expansion
The newspaper has plans of expanding its services across the country. For example, once this colour printing press is brought into the country, the newspaper plans on increasing its circulation and also on the number of advertisements it carries in each edition. The newspaper also intends on enlarging its courier services so that many people can be sending different things from one part of the country to the next in the shortest period of time.
Other Special Features
Other special features found at the Times of Zambia were the clean environment in which operations are done at their Lusaka offices. The outside of the Times of Zambia building on Freedom Way is some kind of eye sore but the picture is a different one once one enters the premises. The newspaper has some of the latest office equipment being used with a floor that is nicely carpeted. Even the air conditioners at the newspaper are the latest with all the old and ugly heavy ones having been removed some time back.
Recommendations
For the Times of Zambia to achieve more from its set objectives there is need to for more effort to be invested in the application of the already existing objectives and goals on the one hand while on the other hand, there is need for adjustments to be made and if possible new ones all together.
The following suggestions if followed and adhered to can obviously bring about more to the results and success that the newspaper is already enjoying. This concept of a business plan could be pursued as the Times of Zambia tries to acquire the largest share of the readers in the country as compared to its two daily competitors, the Zambia Daily Mail and The Post newspapers.
Business concept
The management at the Times of Zambia should explicitly re-examine what the purpose of the newspaper is on the local information communication and entertainment scene. This purpose should be clearly identified to make it easier for would be clients. The newspaper’s mission statement and values are also an integral determinant of its success or failure and these should also be identified with ease without having to labour. This is important because in the world of today, customers will not be willing to waste time looking for obvious things which they can not easily see instead of going to a competitor whose mission and values are clear from the first impression they create.
The product that is produced by the Times of Zambia and the customer should be compatible. There is no need of the Times of Zambia coming up with products that do not even fall in any category of its audience classification. This therefore, means that the newspaper should design conditions for opportunities that would be readily received by its target audience and accepted as the norm of doing business with the Times of Zambia and thereby creating a unique identity for it.
Management team
All those who are vying to be given responsibilities at the managerial level should be people who are adequately qualified to do the job and ensure that the results are seen and consequently effecting change for the newspaper. Another cardinal fact that has to be remembered is that members of the management team as individuals have their strengths and weaknesses. This could be used to the newspaper’s advantage through the combining of all the strengths to come up with a strong leading pack. This point should however ensure that the weaknesses are not ignored because they might come up in one way or another, so the important thing is to lay them out on the table so that needed remedial action can be taken to assist individuals.
Members of the management team should also be clearly told about their tasks, duties and responsibilities so that they avoid encroaching in other people’s fields or operation to prevent unnecessary confrontations and thereby impeding any progress made on the achievement of the objectives of the Times of zambia. Another topic that is usually of interest and concern to any member of an organization is the salary and compensation structure. People should be informed about the amount of money that is due to them before they commence their tasks to avoid any disputes in the future. A good salary and compensation structure will result in a very highly motivated workforce that will be looking forward to the next day of doing business for the newspaper.
Market Research and Analysis
The Times off Zambia’s market size needs to be measured again to determine whether it is growing, reducing or remaining static. Market conditions and characteristics should be carefully examined so that the right time of undertaking an activity or putting a new product on the market can be established so that misfiring is avoided. This should also take into account the market trends and changes, target specific so specific products and services and expected market. Demand for goods or services being provided by the Times of zambia should be accurately measured so that the right amount can be sent out at the right time, keeping in mind to avoid too little to keep the audience frustrated and not too much to keep them bored with the same things all the time.
Industry Research and Analysis
The industry life cycle stage should be critically analysed so that the management and other departments and sections operating at the Times of Zambia can spearhead progress and achieve their desired goals and objectives. Key industry characteristics have to be studied and also keep a keen eye on other competing businesses operating within the industry and their key success factors. After looking at their key success factors, which are usually kept away from their competitors, the Times of Zambia management should the try to adopt some of them and modify them to produce more and better results.
Forces, trends and changes shaping the industry, competitive forces shaping the industry and competition shaping the industry are all elements that require critical scrutiny and analysis to make a bigger and better plan to counter act these for positive results to be seen and achieved.
Products or Service
Competitive advantage is a must for any organization to successfully fend off any existing competitors and remain the number one priority of the audience and this is a fact that the Times of Zambia needs to acknowledge and exploit to the maximum. Customer benefits and value should be made known to all the customers so that it is easy for them to invest their in reading the paper and resources knowing that their efforts are not going to waste.
This requires that product or life cycle stage is explained after research and development activities have been successfully done and completed. All this should however take into consideration the legal issues behind any activity and likely consequences and long court cases that follow thereafter.
Operation and Production Plan
The operation plan should include the following elements, technical description of the product or service that the newspaper is offering to its audience and readership, development stage and costs, distribution and logistics, product requirements and quality control measures.
Marketing Plan
The marketing department should ensure that they adhere strictly to the ethics of marketing to see their labour produce fruits, and the goals and objectives aimed. They should come up with a proper and concrete pricing strategy, promotion strategy, distribution networks which will enable them distribute all the needed information about the Times of Zambia and why they need to be regular readers of the newspaper and also why they need to invest their hard earned K3, 000 in buying the paper. That is why they to employ a very good and strategic marketing stance. Finally, the sales and marketing team should be adequately and appropriately trained to know what their job description is so that they bring the business that will raise revenue needed to run the newspaper. In this area, like many other specialised areas, there is simply no room for trail and error.
Organisational Structure
Organisational structure should also follow the philosophy of upper management, which requires management to observe key positions while at the same time delegating individual and group responsibilities. In this structure strategy there should also concern taken to remember that upholding the compensation plan and incentives to keep all players at all levels of the organistaion structure are content with their tasks and looking forward to the following day when they would have to report for work to engage in their tasks once more.
Another cardinal point not to be brushed aside is the reporting methods and interpersonal communication at the different levels in the organizational structure. All the employees should clearly know who their respective superiors are and whom they report to. Those at the top of the rank should keep in mind that they need to keep the doors of communication with their juniors open at all times and also be willing to receive correction when it is due and suggestions where appropriate.
Growth Plan
Management at the Times of Zambia and all stakeholders should take a keen interest in seeing whether the newspaper is growing, remaining static or diminishing in its influence and popularity. An internal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses must be done and the likely results critically analysed and better recommendations made, which should be willingly accepted by those in positions of responsibility and implementation.
External analysis should also be done. This one will look at opportunities that are already available and new ones that can be explored to expand the Times of Zambia. Threat from other competing newspapers should also be taken seriously with new ideas being forwarded to counter these competitors’ moves. Contingency plan(s) should also be formulated to prevent unnecessary stoppages of work or poor product and service delivery.
Management has to ensure that these contingency plans are on stand by all times to avoid things like claiming that they do not have the latest printing machinery that have not been producing a newspaper that is of good quality. If they have effective contingency plans, they can easily do everything that the public wants to prevent them from appearing like they are a government mouthpiece which just favours those in the ruling party. The Times of Zambia management should also look for more keen stakeholders aside from those that are already present to invest in the newspaper to see some of their goals and objectives a reality.
For better selling of the newspaper, the Times of Zambia should consider re-introducing the door to door delivery system that was proposed in the 1980s. This system involved readers of the newspaper subscribing to the newspaper and having editions delivered to their door steps for free by a Times of Zambia vehicle. This system will allow more people to subscribe because they would not have to go to the streets where vendors are found.
who is who among youths
STAR GOSSIPS
Did you get the rumour around about guys and gals? Hold your breath, there is too much around on almost anything, any personality.
It could be ear itching even annoying for the sensitive, but what can one say, thinking is free. People have the freedom to think the way they please and gossip as per wish. This could be not good reading for the sensitive.
The Star asked gals and guys about their perceptions of what goes around in the world of men. Watch out for perceptions on women in the next issue.
Get to the download, and sieve what is true from blatant absurd from the responses to each fable different guys and gals gave based on their take on them.
There is no free lunch, when a man gives you a present he’ll ask for sex.
“Not always” refutes Stanzo 24. “Men only help. As men we always want to please women. We strive to show a good picture to women. We want to be seen as caring and concerned with women’s welfare. We don’t want to see them struggle. They are our flowers that beautify the world and they should be well looking after like eggs. It’s just that we sometimes get too attached to the other that we end up resolving for sex. We are just generous beings.”
Never trust a man, they are all players.
“Eesh, don’t bite! Men are better!” states Chuma 22. “Women are worse; they can get what they want to suit them always. When a man plays, it shows within a short time, either into a pregnancy form or STI. But women can do it, yet tell the man who suits their fantasies as responsible. STIs equally take long to them for biological reasons. It’s klutz!” But Steve says no. “Men can play a lady when they see that she loose. We take ladies as they are. Some deserve to be played for them to learn something.”
All men think when they see a beauty is sex.
“Whaoo…men and sex are inseparable” exclaims Muzo. “That’s why they are initiators, what can we say. Imagine both had dormant feelings, what will be wild, huh? But there a ladies who can end a dry relationship, full of abstinence. Ha ha…it’s who gets there first sometimes. But men are for sex than women in most cases.” And Kenny contends that some extent yes. “It’s an incentive for love. It starts from there before developing into something big.”
Men never grow up
“Yes, men are always big babies, never get serious with life,” fans Memo. “Hell no” protests Mule on the contrary. “Men just know how to make like fun. But Young contends, “Men really never grow. A man can ditch a lady today claiming he has lost feelings for the lady, and comes back the following day saying he was confused…seeking forgiveness. Some married men equally desert their families when things are rough leaving responsibilities to women. Big babies indeed!”
Too Christian guys are boring
“Whoops, don’t dare it if you don’t to die of boredom,” contends Momo. “A relationship makes sense when spiced with fun, but some Christian guys are too much into the bible. There vocabulary is irrelevantly full of biblical words…the bible says…is all you get. I can’t take it, it’s a boo. It’s not trying.”
“No,” objects Wez. “There are times we talk about the bible. We know the things women want and want to hear and these are things we talk about. We also take them out, what is differ are places where the date takes place. We are good lovers.”
Did you get the rumour around about guys and gals? Hold your breath, there is too much around on almost anything, any personality.
It could be ear itching even annoying for the sensitive, but what can one say, thinking is free. People have the freedom to think the way they please and gossip as per wish. This could be not good reading for the sensitive.
The Star asked gals and guys about their perceptions of what goes around in the world of men. Watch out for perceptions on women in the next issue.
Get to the download, and sieve what is true from blatant absurd from the responses to each fable different guys and gals gave based on their take on them.
There is no free lunch, when a man gives you a present he’ll ask for sex.
“Not always” refutes Stanzo 24. “Men only help. As men we always want to please women. We strive to show a good picture to women. We want to be seen as caring and concerned with women’s welfare. We don’t want to see them struggle. They are our flowers that beautify the world and they should be well looking after like eggs. It’s just that we sometimes get too attached to the other that we end up resolving for sex. We are just generous beings.”
Never trust a man, they are all players.
“Eesh, don’t bite! Men are better!” states Chuma 22. “Women are worse; they can get what they want to suit them always. When a man plays, it shows within a short time, either into a pregnancy form or STI. But women can do it, yet tell the man who suits their fantasies as responsible. STIs equally take long to them for biological reasons. It’s klutz!” But Steve says no. “Men can play a lady when they see that she loose. We take ladies as they are. Some deserve to be played for them to learn something.”
All men think when they see a beauty is sex.
“Whaoo…men and sex are inseparable” exclaims Muzo. “That’s why they are initiators, what can we say. Imagine both had dormant feelings, what will be wild, huh? But there a ladies who can end a dry relationship, full of abstinence. Ha ha…it’s who gets there first sometimes. But men are for sex than women in most cases.” And Kenny contends that some extent yes. “It’s an incentive for love. It starts from there before developing into something big.”
Men never grow up
“Yes, men are always big babies, never get serious with life,” fans Memo. “Hell no” protests Mule on the contrary. “Men just know how to make like fun. But Young contends, “Men really never grow. A man can ditch a lady today claiming he has lost feelings for the lady, and comes back the following day saying he was confused…seeking forgiveness. Some married men equally desert their families when things are rough leaving responsibilities to women. Big babies indeed!”
Too Christian guys are boring
“Whoops, don’t dare it if you don’t to die of boredom,” contends Momo. “A relationship makes sense when spiced with fun, but some Christian guys are too much into the bible. There vocabulary is irrelevantly full of biblical words…the bible says…is all you get. I can’t take it, it’s a boo. It’s not trying.”
“No,” objects Wez. “There are times we talk about the bible. We know the things women want and want to hear and these are things we talk about. We also take them out, what is differ are places where the date takes place. We are good lovers.”
reading among children
It is said that when one wants to hide information from an African the best way is to put it in writing and for a nation to be more developed it needs to have a rich reading culture. A society which reads is also usually socially stable. It is unfortunate that Zambia today is recorded to have a poor reading culture in spite of being recorded to have a higher level of the most intelligent people in Africa.
It is sad to note that the reading culture is declining and it is evident enough that there is a gap in the reading culture in Zambia. A research conducted by the Ministry of Education showed that the country’s Education system faces an incredible burden. Although literacy rates for youths have slightly improved in the last 20 years, about 60% women, 76% men 19% primary and 70% for secondary school age children do not attend school.
The percentages are alarming because they only include those who do not go to school and definitely reading is not for them. This can be an indication as to how low the reading culture is in Zambia.
Most of the young people do not like reading for one reason or the other. For one to be found reading especially if that person is a student then it has to be for examination purposes. It is only one out of ten that you can find a person reading other books for educational grounds.
The most lazy people are the young generation especially school going children who tend not to enjoy reading as they prefer to download the school work from the internet. They have become the most culprits.
The coming of technology to Zambia has led to the decline in the reading culture in Zambia. Exposure to internets and television revolution has contributed to the progress of the reading culture in Zambia. People will only read if there is need to do so for example if one is writing an examination or going for interviews.
Nowadays it is rare to find children playing around with books or discussing what they have learnt at school. All they ever do is to play around with video games and engage themselves in viewing movies and listening to music.
Many Zambian adults would today tell you how they enjoyed reading books from libraries and the free books they used to get at school. Books will activate readers mind and make a person more intelligent. Reading literature more often helps one’s mind to be sharp every time as it is said an empty mind is the devil’s workshop. The mind needs to be fed with information every time and this can only be done through reading a variety of books.
It is indeed embarrassing to see that most people fail to follow simple instructions given on a medical prescription not because they do not know how to read but just because they feel lazy to do so. It is the attitude that most people have towards reading that has also contributed to the decline in the reading culture in Zambia. So if the reading culture has to be improved in Zambia then the attitude towards reading has to be dealt with.
People must learn to take keen interest in reading literature such as magazines, newspapers, education books so that they can expand on their knowledge. It is said that knowledge is power and a tool to success; this can only be achieved through reading widely.
It is high time that parents will take full responsibility in ensuring that their children will spend most of their time reading books and make sure that they see which kinds of books are being read by their children.
There are several other reasons that have led to the decline in the reading culture in Zambia apart from a few that has so far been alluded to. But a major concern has also been raised from the members of the public.
There are a number of people that would love to read but with the economic hardships cannot afford to buy the books. In most learning schools you find that the school libraries have no books and to some extent libraries have been turned into classrooms. Only some schools have libraries and even so cannot accommodate all students. Higher learning institution such as the University of Zambia have libraries but with outdated books.
One institution that has contributed to the decline of reading culture in Zambia is the City Councils. Their mission statement is to improve the reading culture in the nation. City Councils are known to be a service to the public. And one of the services is to offer a reading culture in Zambia through the provision of library facilities to the communities. But do these libraries still function or exist?
In the early 60s and late 70s, most of the townships in the country used to have libraries and books where people used to go. Lusaka City Council libraries were conducive for reading up to the late 80s. But before then, one could go into the library for reading, studying and even doing some research.
When we talk of the buildings’, used to have very clean, nice tables, books were properly arranged on good book shelves. Most books were found in them be it for educational, classic, traditional etc.
From what is seen it is right to say that the council have failed to meet the demand of the reading culture in the city and the country at large. The council libraries have very poor infrastructure with poor sanitation as if that is not enough the libraries have no proper books that are needed to meet the demand, hence they have become waiting rooms or rather time wasting place.
One such council libraries is the Matero council library, were the library’s building is very dilapidated left in a situation were you cannot even recognize it as a library unless you are told. There has been little maintenance and care. Also when you enter inside, it has no proper books to be used by different types of students at different levels. This is an indication to the fact that Lusaka on its own has a poor reading culture and mentality.
School going children have got nowhere to study from because even if they go to the library they wont find suitable material for themselves apart from what they already have but then that is not research.
Also the other said thing is that the council’s planning was very poor in the sense that the libraries they used to build was to cater for a small community but now then 3% population increase per year has defeated their plans because the already existing infrastructure for libraries are very small to accommodate the reading community in any given area.
The Matero council library cannot accommodate more than 40 people studying at once, it will be congested and therefore it will be uncomfortable to study in such a place and researching will be difficult as you can not move about any how. The same applies to the big one popularly known as the Lusaka City Library.
It is therefore an appeal to the government and the city council in particular to plan for such facilities because they are of big value to the society and our own citizens. The council should now build more libraries which will accommodate as many people as possible and also improve on the already existing libraries.
The government through the ministry of education can provide the libraries with meaningful materials because a library could be there but without books then it becomes mean less.
A lot have been said but a few has been done, measures have been put in place but nothing positive has come out in order to improve the reading culture. Is the problem with the government or the public, who should improve the reading culture? A question that should be asked to each one of us.
Libraries were there and some still exist but do we have hope that those that have been closed down will be reopened some time in future? According to the LCC, it has no intention of reopening the libraries because they do not have resources to do so.
“It is our mission statement to give services to the public and such services include offering a good reading culture to the entire nation but it is also the responsibility of the public to guard these facilities jealously”.
Indeed most libraries used to have books and the buildings used to look clean, but one will wonder were the books are and who knows what happened to those libraries that existed 40 years ago?. The public must also have the part to answer to such questions.
It has been observed that once people get to the library, they will borrow books and later do not return the books to the library. There are the same people who are to blame for the loss of books in libraries and vandalism as well.
“As the council we can not afford to replace books every time neither can we manage to repair the infrastructure every time it is being vandalized by the members of the public because we have limited resources”.
This is a major set back on the part of the government because it will have the burden of sourcing funds to purchase literature for libraries which might hinder the development of the country
For the libraries that are still operating the council appeals to the donor community to donate some books so that libraries may continue to function and for the members of the public to take care of books and libraries.
The government under the ministry of education some time back had put in place a draft policy that addressed all concerns of revamping the reading culture. The policy had tackled among other issues how the ministry would incorporate reading in the school curricular.
“A lot of activities have been put in place such as Essay writing competitions in schools are conducted countrywide by the Zambia Women Writers Association in conjunction with the American Embassy”.
They have been other interventions put in place by government to boost the reading culture such as the read on course program which runs from grade 3 and to establish more resource centers to promote reading.
Complaints have been aired by the public and efforts have been made by authorities to address such issues. But what is there left to be done if Zambia is to have a reach reading culture?
In as far as we may critise each other, as long as we are not taking any action or taking full responsibility, Zambia will remain having problems with the reading culture and most of all the young will be the most affected because at the end of it all they will be no literature to read.
Indeed the reading culture in Zambia has to be revamped and this can only be done if people change the attitude towards reading and if only libraries can be worked upon because they are really an eyesore!
It is sad to note that the reading culture is declining and it is evident enough that there is a gap in the reading culture in Zambia. A research conducted by the Ministry of Education showed that the country’s Education system faces an incredible burden. Although literacy rates for youths have slightly improved in the last 20 years, about 60% women, 76% men 19% primary and 70% for secondary school age children do not attend school.
The percentages are alarming because they only include those who do not go to school and definitely reading is not for them. This can be an indication as to how low the reading culture is in Zambia.
Most of the young people do not like reading for one reason or the other. For one to be found reading especially if that person is a student then it has to be for examination purposes. It is only one out of ten that you can find a person reading other books for educational grounds.
The most lazy people are the young generation especially school going children who tend not to enjoy reading as they prefer to download the school work from the internet. They have become the most culprits.
The coming of technology to Zambia has led to the decline in the reading culture in Zambia. Exposure to internets and television revolution has contributed to the progress of the reading culture in Zambia. People will only read if there is need to do so for example if one is writing an examination or going for interviews.
Nowadays it is rare to find children playing around with books or discussing what they have learnt at school. All they ever do is to play around with video games and engage themselves in viewing movies and listening to music.
Many Zambian adults would today tell you how they enjoyed reading books from libraries and the free books they used to get at school. Books will activate readers mind and make a person more intelligent. Reading literature more often helps one’s mind to be sharp every time as it is said an empty mind is the devil’s workshop. The mind needs to be fed with information every time and this can only be done through reading a variety of books.
It is indeed embarrassing to see that most people fail to follow simple instructions given on a medical prescription not because they do not know how to read but just because they feel lazy to do so. It is the attitude that most people have towards reading that has also contributed to the decline in the reading culture in Zambia. So if the reading culture has to be improved in Zambia then the attitude towards reading has to be dealt with.
People must learn to take keen interest in reading literature such as magazines, newspapers, education books so that they can expand on their knowledge. It is said that knowledge is power and a tool to success; this can only be achieved through reading widely.
It is high time that parents will take full responsibility in ensuring that their children will spend most of their time reading books and make sure that they see which kinds of books are being read by their children.
There are several other reasons that have led to the decline in the reading culture in Zambia apart from a few that has so far been alluded to. But a major concern has also been raised from the members of the public.
There are a number of people that would love to read but with the economic hardships cannot afford to buy the books. In most learning schools you find that the school libraries have no books and to some extent libraries have been turned into classrooms. Only some schools have libraries and even so cannot accommodate all students. Higher learning institution such as the University of Zambia have libraries but with outdated books.
One institution that has contributed to the decline of reading culture in Zambia is the City Councils. Their mission statement is to improve the reading culture in the nation. City Councils are known to be a service to the public. And one of the services is to offer a reading culture in Zambia through the provision of library facilities to the communities. But do these libraries still function or exist?
In the early 60s and late 70s, most of the townships in the country used to have libraries and books where people used to go. Lusaka City Council libraries were conducive for reading up to the late 80s. But before then, one could go into the library for reading, studying and even doing some research.
When we talk of the buildings’, used to have very clean, nice tables, books were properly arranged on good book shelves. Most books were found in them be it for educational, classic, traditional etc.
From what is seen it is right to say that the council have failed to meet the demand of the reading culture in the city and the country at large. The council libraries have very poor infrastructure with poor sanitation as if that is not enough the libraries have no proper books that are needed to meet the demand, hence they have become waiting rooms or rather time wasting place.
One such council libraries is the Matero council library, were the library’s building is very dilapidated left in a situation were you cannot even recognize it as a library unless you are told. There has been little maintenance and care. Also when you enter inside, it has no proper books to be used by different types of students at different levels. This is an indication to the fact that Lusaka on its own has a poor reading culture and mentality.
School going children have got nowhere to study from because even if they go to the library they wont find suitable material for themselves apart from what they already have but then that is not research.
Also the other said thing is that the council’s planning was very poor in the sense that the libraries they used to build was to cater for a small community but now then 3% population increase per year has defeated their plans because the already existing infrastructure for libraries are very small to accommodate the reading community in any given area.
The Matero council library cannot accommodate more than 40 people studying at once, it will be congested and therefore it will be uncomfortable to study in such a place and researching will be difficult as you can not move about any how. The same applies to the big one popularly known as the Lusaka City Library.
It is therefore an appeal to the government and the city council in particular to plan for such facilities because they are of big value to the society and our own citizens. The council should now build more libraries which will accommodate as many people as possible and also improve on the already existing libraries.
The government through the ministry of education can provide the libraries with meaningful materials because a library could be there but without books then it becomes mean less.
A lot have been said but a few has been done, measures have been put in place but nothing positive has come out in order to improve the reading culture. Is the problem with the government or the public, who should improve the reading culture? A question that should be asked to each one of us.
Libraries were there and some still exist but do we have hope that those that have been closed down will be reopened some time in future? According to the LCC, it has no intention of reopening the libraries because they do not have resources to do so.
“It is our mission statement to give services to the public and such services include offering a good reading culture to the entire nation but it is also the responsibility of the public to guard these facilities jealously”.
Indeed most libraries used to have books and the buildings used to look clean, but one will wonder were the books are and who knows what happened to those libraries that existed 40 years ago?. The public must also have the part to answer to such questions.
It has been observed that once people get to the library, they will borrow books and later do not return the books to the library. There are the same people who are to blame for the loss of books in libraries and vandalism as well.
“As the council we can not afford to replace books every time neither can we manage to repair the infrastructure every time it is being vandalized by the members of the public because we have limited resources”.
This is a major set back on the part of the government because it will have the burden of sourcing funds to purchase literature for libraries which might hinder the development of the country
For the libraries that are still operating the council appeals to the donor community to donate some books so that libraries may continue to function and for the members of the public to take care of books and libraries.
The government under the ministry of education some time back had put in place a draft policy that addressed all concerns of revamping the reading culture. The policy had tackled among other issues how the ministry would incorporate reading in the school curricular.
“A lot of activities have been put in place such as Essay writing competitions in schools are conducted countrywide by the Zambia Women Writers Association in conjunction with the American Embassy”.
They have been other interventions put in place by government to boost the reading culture such as the read on course program which runs from grade 3 and to establish more resource centers to promote reading.
Complaints have been aired by the public and efforts have been made by authorities to address such issues. But what is there left to be done if Zambia is to have a reach reading culture?
In as far as we may critise each other, as long as we are not taking any action or taking full responsibility, Zambia will remain having problems with the reading culture and most of all the young will be the most affected because at the end of it all they will be no literature to read.
Indeed the reading culture in Zambia has to be revamped and this can only be done if people change the attitude towards reading and if only libraries can be worked upon because they are really an eyesore!
calamities: whose affected more?
Over the centuries, children have borne the brunt of suffering. Helpless and dependant, they often have been caught in the cross fires of wars, conflict, public riots and family feuds.
It was mostly children who bore the impact of the recent Burmese cyclone that marshaled millions of the country’s population into horrible destitution in seconds.
It was infants again who were decimated in the 1990s when the concept of streetism came into the Zambian vocabulary.
To that end, UNDP national economist, Elda Chirwa in an interview, said escalating global food crisis, energy shortages and erratic fuel price adjustments will soon paralyze the effectiveness of most households, a situation that would distract human efforts aimed at improving standards of living.
Ms Chirwa said those cross cutting economic upheavals would usher children into insurmountable sufferings if not handled with the seriousness they deserve as some households tended to leave children to fend for themselves when things were hard-hitting.
She argued that even the achievements Zambia had recorded in health, nutrition and the provision of antiretroviral drugs to HIV and AIDS clients would be paralysed as the current crises of food, energy and fuel, affected most strategic sectors that anchor the viability of society’s production capacity.
Ms Chirwa said the provision of Anti Retrial Viral (ARVs) to clients that do not have access to food to supplement the life boosting drugs would lead to serious side effects even unprecedented deaths.
In the 1970s, the double dosage of oil shocks and the reduction in copper prices introduced most Zambians to the untold misery that they have continued to experience to date in different facets.
Yet with the current food challenge, they are expected to get ready for more afflictions in addition to their current lack of access to a decent meal.
Ms Chirwa added that what was more disheartening in situations of prolonged inadequate food availability at the household level was that such situations tended to eventually seen as a norm, a way of living.
“Worse still, for most of Africa, inadequate food availability, disease, ignorance, and the like, were occurrences that have not received the necessary urgency in reactions, which can be stressed in the slow pace of dedication to some global commitments such as the Millennium Goals (MDGs),” she said.
The UNDP economic chief added that it was time for the country to consider irrigation serious for households to access basic food staffs that could hasten the health of children who are window of the country’s future.
She said more children would be vulnerable and their future would be blurred if right measures were not put in place to address the food crisis, energy shortages and annoying fuel price increases, all of which drain savable resources by households.
Ms Chirwa said without food, the future of the country was at risk as a starving generation’s growth rate would be stunted and its performance in school goes down.
Scientifically, it has been proved that lack of adequate food to a child dwindles its growth and ability to conceptualise things in class.
Coupled with energy shortage and high fuel prices challenges which are almost becoming a disaster, Zambia’s future would be un-pleasing.
Poverty levels would increase following lack of access to food by households both in rural and urban setup.
Inflation rate could shoot up, and the cost of living would become more expensive than what most households could afford.
The value of the Kwacha or its buying power would be eroded further that chaos (like strikes) would be attained as society often becomes violent when food insecurity worsens.
The country thus needed to re-strategise its food security measures to ensure that the children have a bright future.
Food insecurity could lead to high levels of school drop outs, a situation that would worsen illiteracy levels in the country.
High levels of illiteracy would put the future of the country at challenge as ignorant generation has little to contribute to the economy because of their limited ability to use their genie to create national income.
The low level of income generation would worsen the economic status of Zambia, and supporting its developmental programmes would be unattainable.
The number of street children would swore when households run out of food as children are often used as food seekers in most quarters of society.
Some parents would leave children to beg for food and other alms of the street for survival, a state of affairs that would frustrate the current efforts of training former street children surviving skills.
Bembas say imiti iikula empanga (today’s shrubs are tomorrow’s future), shape that future; make policies that would provide children a haven of prosperity.
Their future is in your hands!
It was mostly children who bore the impact of the recent Burmese cyclone that marshaled millions of the country’s population into horrible destitution in seconds.
It was infants again who were decimated in the 1990s when the concept of streetism came into the Zambian vocabulary.
To that end, UNDP national economist, Elda Chirwa in an interview, said escalating global food crisis, energy shortages and erratic fuel price adjustments will soon paralyze the effectiveness of most households, a situation that would distract human efforts aimed at improving standards of living.
Ms Chirwa said those cross cutting economic upheavals would usher children into insurmountable sufferings if not handled with the seriousness they deserve as some households tended to leave children to fend for themselves when things were hard-hitting.
She argued that even the achievements Zambia had recorded in health, nutrition and the provision of antiretroviral drugs to HIV and AIDS clients would be paralysed as the current crises of food, energy and fuel, affected most strategic sectors that anchor the viability of society’s production capacity.
Ms Chirwa said the provision of Anti Retrial Viral (ARVs) to clients that do not have access to food to supplement the life boosting drugs would lead to serious side effects even unprecedented deaths.
In the 1970s, the double dosage of oil shocks and the reduction in copper prices introduced most Zambians to the untold misery that they have continued to experience to date in different facets.
Yet with the current food challenge, they are expected to get ready for more afflictions in addition to their current lack of access to a decent meal.
Ms Chirwa added that what was more disheartening in situations of prolonged inadequate food availability at the household level was that such situations tended to eventually seen as a norm, a way of living.
“Worse still, for most of Africa, inadequate food availability, disease, ignorance, and the like, were occurrences that have not received the necessary urgency in reactions, which can be stressed in the slow pace of dedication to some global commitments such as the Millennium Goals (MDGs),” she said.
The UNDP economic chief added that it was time for the country to consider irrigation serious for households to access basic food staffs that could hasten the health of children who are window of the country’s future.
She said more children would be vulnerable and their future would be blurred if right measures were not put in place to address the food crisis, energy shortages and annoying fuel price increases, all of which drain savable resources by households.
Ms Chirwa said without food, the future of the country was at risk as a starving generation’s growth rate would be stunted and its performance in school goes down.
Scientifically, it has been proved that lack of adequate food to a child dwindles its growth and ability to conceptualise things in class.
Coupled with energy shortage and high fuel prices challenges which are almost becoming a disaster, Zambia’s future would be un-pleasing.
Poverty levels would increase following lack of access to food by households both in rural and urban setup.
Inflation rate could shoot up, and the cost of living would become more expensive than what most households could afford.
The value of the Kwacha or its buying power would be eroded further that chaos (like strikes) would be attained as society often becomes violent when food insecurity worsens.
The country thus needed to re-strategise its food security measures to ensure that the children have a bright future.
Food insecurity could lead to high levels of school drop outs, a situation that would worsen illiteracy levels in the country.
High levels of illiteracy would put the future of the country at challenge as ignorant generation has little to contribute to the economy because of their limited ability to use their genie to create national income.
The low level of income generation would worsen the economic status of Zambia, and supporting its developmental programmes would be unattainable.
The number of street children would swore when households run out of food as children are often used as food seekers in most quarters of society.
Some parents would leave children to beg for food and other alms of the street for survival, a state of affairs that would frustrate the current efforts of training former street children surviving skills.
Bembas say imiti iikula empanga (today’s shrubs are tomorrow’s future), shape that future; make policies that would provide children a haven of prosperity.
Their future is in your hands!
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