Merry Christmas and Happy 2012

Dear Friends,

“Peace on Earth, good will toward all people.” It is hard for me, and I think it must be equally hard for you, to imagine any time in history that has been more in need of peace and good will among all people. Or a time when even those of us who name ourselves Christian have been more vulnerable to cynicism and doubt. Where do were look for hope?

Christmas reminds of God’s love and care for all of us. Indeed Christmas demonstrates God’s desire for Shalom. During this festival season let’s continue to be agents of Hope and God’s love by reaching out to people who may not be privileged like us to have shelter, good health and other the necessities of life.

Many thanks for all your support through this year. As always your encouragement and participation in the Micah campaign continues to be a great source of encouragement. A special thank you for praying for us and contributing to the growth of the Micah Challenge coalition in Zambia. Your support is vital in helping with the fight against poverty and achieving the dream of meeting the MDGs. I am always humbled that you consider the work worthy supporting given the myriads of choices you have!

Once again, huge thanks to our many Micah Challenge supporters worldwide, Micah Challenge International and Tear Fund. Your contributions continue to be insightful and relevant. They provide a valuable source to steer the thinking and prioritize issues that need to be covered.

Wishing you all a wonder Christmas and fantastic 2012!!

May the Lord keep you safe and secure during this festive period.

Martin Kapenda

Micah Challenge Zambia

Campaign Coordinator

Kindly click on the highlighted link below to download Micah Challenge Zambia Toolkit for District Steering Committees.

MCZ Toolkit

Micah Challenge Zambia

A Ministry of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia

Introduction

Micah Sunday is a global day of prayer to mobilise churches to engage with global poverty issues. It is a time for churches to learn, reflect and act on their belief about the importance of justice, and to commit to the fight for dignity for the most vulnerable.

Micah Sunday is celebrated with activities in church services around the world. These activities include prayer times, Biblical reflections and mobilization of faith communities to present public pitions in the fight against poverty within each context. In Zambia,this year we are focusing on water and sanitation. We encourage you to join Micah Challenge in holding special church event which will take plabe on Sunday October 16^th to pray and lobby the government to honour its commitment to provide communities with adequate water supply and access to sanitation facilities.

Date

The International Date for Micah Sunday 2011 is October 16^th.. We would like to encourage you to mark this year’s Micah Sunday during the Sunday service.

Interdenominational Prayer Meeting

Each Pastors Fellowship is encouraged to organise an Interdenominational Prayer Fellowship in the afternoon on the 16^th of October 2011 at district level.. Have someone preach, and different people lead the congregation on respective prayer concerns on water and sanitation. You can also invited newly elected Members of Parliament and Councillors. Inform Micah Challenge on the numbers of people attending the prayer rally and lets us if MPs and Councillors have attended the prayer meeting.

Aims

The aim of this year’s Micah Sunday is:

· lobby the government to honour its pledge to provide quality water and sanitation services in our communities.

· Intercede for our newly elected leaders to keep their promise to halve poverty by 2015.

· Pray for Zambia to meet her side of commitments to the MDGs to meet the seventh goal which pledges to promote environmental sustainability.

· Take stock of what your church has done to lessen poverty in your community by carrying out specific interventions, like running a community school, Home Based care Program a feeding Program for children, or orphans support among many other interventions

Prayer Bulletin

Sunday October 16, 2011

Thank you for accepting to share and pray with the worldwide Micah Challenge community this Sunday. We hope this bulletin is challenging, inspiring and spurs us on! Prayer needs to be an important part of our efforts to over come extreme poverty. This Sunday we are united in prayer because prayer:

• Brings our hearts closer to the heart of God, especially as it concerns the poor. God’s mercy inspires us to strive for environmental justice when we pray.
• Help us remember that real people are behind every staggering poverty statistic
• Sustains us as we seek to overcome the injustice of poor services in the provision of education in community schools
• Empowers us to be POWERFUL agents of social change in our communities

Reflection

Most of our communities face problems of quality water supply and access to adequate sanitation services. On a yearly basis most communities face health challenges which easily be challenged if there is good water supply and adequate access to sanitation services. For example, Diarrhoea one of the leading cause of death in children under 5 can easily be prevented if communities have access to clean water Yet the issues of water and sanitation received little political currency during this years election, despite the high burden of disease.

The Zambian government has committed itself to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Fifth National Development Plan for 2006-2011 gave reassuring priority to poverty reduction. The task will be formidable as Zambia has so far failed to make significant progress on the eradication of poverty and hunger (MDG 1). The majority of the population (76% lives on less than $1 a day, and 94% have less than $2, figures that are significantly worse than in the MDG baseline year of 1990). Food security remains very sensitive to unpredictable harvests. There is a growing gap between the rich and the poor.

The good news is that Zambia has the potential to achieve nearly all of the MDGs, according to the Zambia MDGs Progress Report published in 2008. One important exception is maternal mortality (MDG 5) which has been increasing in recent years. This worrying trend is also true of of MDG seven which deals with environmental sustainability..

What is the role of the church in Zambia in the context of economic crises, failing standards in the provision of quality water and sanitation services in our communities.

How is the church of Jesus Christ going to face these challenges in these end-times, and be the “salt” and “light” and God’s agent in transforming communities by God’s and bringing peace and transformation through the Gospel?

Please reflect on Luke 4:14-21, a model of engaging society in order to attain spiritual, physical and social transformation.

‘…the spirit of the Lord is upon me

For he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor’ (Luke 4)

Prayer

Let us pray:

For passion, energy and wisdom for the church in Zambia so that it can be a true light and salt in its continent and respond united to challenges accordingly. Please pray that opportunities can be maximized and used for the growth of God’s kingdom. Specifically pray for the government to fulfil its commitment to improve the quality of water and sanitation services in our communities.

Specifically let us pray for the following:

1. Provision of safe drinking water in our communities

2. Improving school infrastructure by providing funds for improvement of water and sanitation in schools.

3. Provision of adequate water services in order to prevent diarrhoea diseases among children in order to prevent child mortality.

4. Specific water challenges in your respective community.

Meditate on the Statistics

As you spend time in prayer and reflection, you may like to take a moment to silently understand with your heart the focus statistic included below. Our hope is that you will find these statistics a useful resource in preparing for Micah Sunday.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental sustainability

Target 10: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation Indicators

· Proportion of population without sustainable access to an improved water source

· Proportion of population without access to improved sanitation

Commercialization of water supply has contributed to accessing water sources and been crucial to sustaining improvements in service delivery in urban areas. Over recent years, the Commercial Utilities have made considerable achievements in extending water supply coverage from 58 percent in 2004/05 to 73 percent in 2005/2006 (NWASCO). With respect to sanitation, the situation is not getting better. The proportion of the population without access to good sanitation rose by over 10 percent from 26 percent in 1991 to 36.1 percent in 2006.

Challenges

Lack of mechanisms for replicating the performance success of Southern Province towns in water and sanitation delivery to other areas in Zambia, in the absence of specific externally targeted funding support.

Increasing investment levels towards extension of services in water supply and sanitation, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas where cost recovery may not be possible.

Need for coordination at sector level between Ministry of Water and Energy Development and Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH).

Lack of implementation progress on decentralization to the local authorities.

Lack of adequate human and financial capacity at Ministry of Local Government and Housing and the local authorities.

Need to improve the performance of commercial water utilities including water quality and hours of supply.

Encouraging effective community participation and stakeholder involvement in the design, operation and management of water supply and sanitation facilities.

Providing low-cost, appropriate, standardized and sustainable water supply and sanitation technologies in order to provide alternatives to high cost technologies.

Addressing the issue of unplanned and illegal urban settlements that make the provision of water and sanitation facilities difficult.

Resistance to behavioural change and traditional values around sharing pit latrines.

Source: Report: Zambia Millennium Development Goals: Progress Report 2008.

Further Suggestins for Holding Micah Sunday

You can take three simple actions:

1. Encourage people to join the movement by explaining the Micah Challenge. Then ask people to add their names by signing the Micah Call on the form attached (Make copies for your church and send signed copies to Micah Challenge at the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia)

2. Pray for justice and an end to global poverty.

3. Ask your congregation to commit to taking specific actions in your community. Identify issues of water and sanitation that your church can be involved with in your community. You can add your voice to the Micah Challenge campaign by sending the following sample letter to your respective member of parliament:

Name of your church or Pastors Fellowship

Date

Dear (Name of your area Member of Parliament)

On behalf of our (name of church or Pastors Fellowship) we would like to congratulate you for having been elected as our area Member of Parliament for (name of constituency).

As you assume the office of Member of Parliament for our constituency for the next five years we are aware of the fact that the 2015 completion of the MDGs will occur during your tenure as our Member of Parliament. Therefore, we would like to urge you prioritise the MDGs in your work as MP and work towards making Zambia attain her side of the MDGs. We are already to offer you our support so that we score big on MDGs and save the lives of millions of Zambians affected by extreme poverty.

As a Local Church (indicate Pastors Fellowship if writing on behalf of your respective Pastors Fellowship) we have serious concerns on the water and sanitation situation in our constituency. Specifically our concerns are:

1.

2.

3. etc

Therefore, we would like to ask you to share with us your plans for addressing these issues together with other community players in the area of water and sanitation.

Sincerely Yours

Name of senior Leader

Your position in the Organisation

Send a copy of your letter to us at the following address

Micah Challenge Zambia

c/o Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia

P O Box 33862

LUSAKA

Introduction

Prayer underpins all our actions and on Sunday 10th October 2010 it will affirm the importance of listening to God, seeking his wisdom and relying on His strength

and guidance. We want to affirm the importance of listening to God, seeking his wisdom and relying on his strength and guidance. The global prayer for Micah 2010 echoes the themes of Nehemiah who fasted and prayed day and night before he embarked on the mighty task of restoring Jerusalem. The prayer of this campaign arises out of the heart of the Bible itself. The heart-rending prayer of Nehemiah claiming for a full life for its people that return from exile is the theological framework that inspires the 10.10.10 and that will motivate Christians all over the world

The prayer for this special Sunday is:

O Lord, our great and awesome God, loyal to your promise of love and faithful to all who honour and obey you, hear our prayer.

We pray for those who live in poverty,

we cry out for those who are denied justice and

we weep for all who are suffering.

We confess that we have not always obeyed you.

We have neglected your commands and have ignored your call for justice.

We have been guided by self-interest and lived in spiritual poverty.

Forgive us

We remember your promises to fill the hungry with good things, to redeem the land by your mighty hand and to restore peace.

Father God, help us always to proclaim your justice and mercy with humility, so that, by the power of your Spirit, we can rid the world of the sin of extreme poverty.

As part of your global church, we stand with millions who praise and worship you.

May our words and deeds declare your perfect goodness, love and righteousness to both the powerful and the powerless

so that your Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen

Date

The 10.10.10 Campaign will be carried out on the 10th of October 2010, the month of the fight against poverty, and it seeks a large-scale mobilization of the church in global prayer. Therefore, allow your churc to particpate in this call to prayer.

Aims

The aim of the Micah 2010 is to call on the church to pray for issues related to the mining industry which is the blood line of the Zambian economy and the major key to fighting poverty in Zambia: Through this call to prayer we want:

• to point towards accountability and a renewed commitment on the part of our leaders leaders, 10 years after the Millennium Declaration was signed by zambia and other nations of the world.

• to seek a large-scale mobilization of the church in global prayer. World wide a 100 million Christians are being mobilised to join together to pray for justice in the nations.

• to advocate politically at the local level in order to implement public policies supporting the achievement of the MDGs.

• to work on concrete actions to fight against poverty and to demand the achievement of the MDGs on the part of our elected leaders sine they are the ones who signed the millennium declaration will characterise the campaign.

Sunday October 10, 2010

Thank you for sharing and praying with the worldwide Micah Challenge community this Sunday. We hope this bulletin is challenging, inspiring and spurs us on! Prayer needs to be an important part of our efforts to over come extreme poverty. This Sunday we are united in prayer because prayer:

• Brings our hearts closer to the heart of God, especially as it concerns the poor. God’s mercy inspires us to strive for justice when we pray.
• Helps us remember that real people are behind every staggering poverty statistic
• Sustains us as we seek to overcome the injustice of poor services in the provision of education in community schools
• Empowers us to be POWERFUL agents of social change in our communities

Reflection

The Zambian government has committed itself to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Fifth National Development Plan for 2006-2011 gives reassuring priority to poverty reduction. The task will be formidable as Zambia has so far failed to make significant progress on the eradication of poverty and hunger (MDG 1). The majority of the population lives on less than $1 a day. This situation is significantly worse than in the MDG baseline year of 1990. There is a growing gap between the rich and the poor.

The good news is that Zambia has the potential to achieve nearly all of the MDGs, according to the Zambia MDGs Progress Report published in 2008. One important exception is maternal mortality (MDG 5) which has been increasing in recent years. This worrying trend is also true of literacy rates (MDG2) which have declined since 1990. Today one third of the adult population is illiterate.

The enemy of developmnt in Zambia is luck of resources. God has has endowed this country mineral resources, but we do not seem to get enough benefits from the mining industry.

Reflect on the following facts:

• Mining is the backbone of the Zambian economy

• The major investors in the mining sector are large foreign multi-national corporations

• Local Mining benefits are not positive because most of the proceeds from the sales are repatriated to the multinational countries of origin.

• The people who benefit more from the proceeds from the mines are the foreigners through their multinational corporations and the scores out of ten are as follows:

-Investors 7

-Local communities 0.5

-Government 2.5

• the local communities participate in the mining activities done by the investor through the provision of labour and as suppliers of different products to the mine.

• The government obtain some proceeds from the mining investors for using the natural in terms of tax and also tax from the workers in these mines. This is the money is used for the development of infrastructure and the social sector. But the constraint is that the money is not adequate and more needs to be done .

Challenges

There are challnges surronding the mining industry in zambia which should concern the church in zambia.

• low economic returns to the country

• corruption which makes it difficult for most local business men to supply to the mines

• casualisation of the workforce

• Lack of links to local business

• Failure to protect local infrastructure by the mine owners

• Environmental degradation due to increasesd mining investments

What is the role of the church in Zambia in the context of increased mining investment in Zambia, but with less economic retunsr?

How is the church of Jesus Christ going to face these challenges in these end-times, and be the “salt” and “light” and God’s agent in transforming communities by God’s and bringing peace and transformation through the Gospel?

Please reflect on Luke 4:14-21, a model of engaging society in order to attain spiritual, physical and social transformation.

‘…the spirit of the Lord is upon me

For he has appointed me tp preach Good News to the poor’ (Luke 4)

Let us pray:

For passion, energy and wisdom for the church in Zambia so that it can be a true light and salt in its continent and respond united to challenges accordingly. Please pray that opportunities can be maximized and used for the growth of God’s kingdom. Specifically pray for the government to fulfill its commitment to halve poverty by 2015. The high poverty levels impact negatively on the majority of the poor.

Specifically let us pray for the following:

1. Pray for our leaders to fulfil their commitment to halve the numbers of poor people in Zambia.

2. Pray for the success of the mining industry, since it generates 75 percent of the country’s foreign export earnings.

3. Pray that the government may reintroduce the wind fall tax in order for the country revenue to increase.

4. Include other prayer requests to be shared by the local ministers fellwoship.

Proposed program for Interdenominational Prayer services

Arrival of congregants

Prayer and Praise

Welcome, Introduction of Invited Guests and Opening remarks

Ministry of Music

Word of Exhortation

Prayers Points on extractive industries: To be shared by the local Pastors Fellwoship

Short speech from Guest of Homor

Closing Remarks

Recession

For More Details contact

Martin Kapenda, Campaign Coordinator

Micah Challenge Zambia

c\o Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia

P O Box 33862 LUSAKA

+260 977 147 320

+260 966 788 487

kapendam@yahoo.com

More on Micah Challenge Zambia

The Micah Challenge has been developed by the Micah Network and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) in response to a groundswell among evangelical Christian churches wanting to contribute at all levels to the alleviation of poverty and to greater justice for poor communities. Micah Challenge takes its name from the prophet Micah, who wrote, “what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Christian organizations and local churches have made a major contribution to direct delivery of community development and relief programmes but have largely been invisible as a political force on poverty and justice issues. Notable exceptions are the role played by churches and church organizations worldwide, in the Jubilee 2000 debt campaign, and their growing involvement in the trade justice movement. In the economically poorer countries of the South

, a number of church-based organizations have advocated successfully on human rights issues and for constitutional reform. However, these courageous stances taken by local and national churches have seldom been linked across borders.

This is particularly true of evangelical churches and evangelical parts of the major Christian denominations. The World Evangelical Alliance represent

s millions of evangelical Christians worldwide, many of whom are in the South. These tend to have very strong local roots and local accountability as a result of their decentralized and less hierarchical structures. However, they have also been less able, as a result, to develop multi-country campaigns on poverty issues.

The goal of Micah Challenge Zambia is to empower and resource Christians in Zambia to deepen their engagement in poverty reduction and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This is being achieved by promoting the Micah Challenge campaign and building a strong coalition of Christian individuals, churches, denominations, theological colleges and other para-church or civil society organizations (particularly those identifying themselves as evangelical but not exclusively) who are committed to engaging in the Micah Challenge campaign, practicing integral holistic mission with poor people and helping to meet the MDG

The Micah Challenge campaign in Zambia aims to help the Christian community, particularly the growing middle-class Christian church community, in Zambia to actively engage with poverty reduction issues and integrate advocacy into their current responses. Micah Challenge Zambia secretariat is housed at the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia in Lusaka as a coalition of evangelical Christians, churches and organizations..

Dear friends

We had Micah Sunday on 17^th Oct where we were praying over the Millennium Goals after petitioning the Minister of Education on the 16^th October to consider the plight of Community schools around the country. A good number of pastors and people from different churches came together and we prayed for all sectors of our economy and that poverty should be swept out. 

Insert Photo: Presentation of petition to the Minister’s Representative

Some of the pictures you will see are of people marching. These are the people who participated in the Micah Challenge Millennium Development Goal campaign. About 50 community schools from Ndola District participated.

The prayer items for the Micah challenge were:

1. That the government deploys trained teachers to community schools on needs based system that is not influenced by school type.

2. Meet quotas established for enrolment in pre-service programs for community schools.

3. Provide alternate training for community schoolteachers giving credence to the teacher’s time spent teaching in the community school classrooms.

4. Give preference in deployment to former community school teachers trained by the government.

5. Provide books and materials to community schools in an equitable and transparent manner.

6. Improve school infrastructure by providing funds for improvement of water and sanitation at community schools.

Why should Christians petition over the Millennium Development goals?

According to the Bible, we are the head and not the tail. The Bible also tells us to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. In the past Christians only talked about heaven and left much of the work to the politician. We later came to learn that the constitutions in some western nations formulated by politicians were not in line as some ruled out the sharing of the gospel in communities and schools and public gatherings. This was when Christians woke up and realised that politics should not be left in the hands of the politician alone. Politicians instead should be accountable to us as people who listen from God. My appeal to christen leaders is to mentor Christians who will have influence in the political arena so that when a constitution is being implemented Christians shall be involved and ensure peace.

For several years, Micah Challenge in collaboration with the GCAP and the UN Millennium has been participating in the Stand and take Action Campaign to remind the 189 nations including Zambia who signed the MDG Declaration in 2000 to stay focused on the commitment to achieve the MDGs.

Finally, please as Christians let us not be quiet but take action. We have already told the government what needs to be done but we too have our own contribution towards the communities that are less privileged so that we act as an example to our leaders.

Thank you for being an active participator to this cause.

Pastor Peter.

Insert Photo: Mopani Copper Mine Offices

But its future was not always so bright, according to Prisca Kambole, Executive Director of PLEAP: “When [we began] here two years ago, [there were] five untrained, volunteer teachers, 400 children… classrooms lacking desks, stationary, exercise books and pencil. The place was anything but a school.” Though copper prices have risen significantly in the last decade, Musonda has seen little of the economic benefit; even though it is located within a couple miles of an established copper mine. Most of Musonda’s residents live on less than a dollar a day, and education opportunities for children are severely limited.

It is in this community that PLEAP first rented a two-room building in an effort to support the struggling Musonda School. As a Christian organization, PLAEP also takes church involvement in its school project seriously. With an emphasis on improving the capacity of its teachers, PLAEP emphasizes the connection between the local church and the UN Millennium Development educational goals.

Insert Photo: Nathan Nanfelt, Allan Chisala and Prisca Kambole

The change in teachers is obvious, according to Paul Mulenga, Head Teacher at the Musonda School, “Though, I am a Christian, I did not [previously] know the connection between God’s concern for these children to attend school and the church’s responsibility. I now relate my work to the call of the prophet Micah, ‘What does the Lord require of you, But to do justice, and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?’ This is my motivation as I serve these children.”

And what began as a PLAEP and local church effort has become international in scope. Nathan Nanfelt, a Wheaton College HNGR intern at Micah Challenge Zambia, connected friend Emily George with PLAEP staff in Musonda, a partnership that  quickly grew deep roots. Emily furthered the partnership, involving her family and home church, Valley Springs Presbyterian Church. Children from her church raised $505 for school supplies, and an education partnership program was created, currently involving over fifty church families. Emily’s primary efforts, however, focused on education, as she invested in sixty students ages 10-16. A fresh approach successfully helped to change students’ apathetic attitudes towards education into creative engagement.

Insert Photo: Emily and the pupils at school

The school’s drama team was since chosen to participate in a national drama competition, one of only three schools selected in the entire country. At its closing performance, the drama team depicted a typical bleak Zambian household scenario, but concluded with a scene of reconciliation which demonstrated the faithfulness of God.

The Musonda School is a model of hope for schools in Zambia and beyond. By connecting the local church, international partners, and ngo’s MCZ and PLAEP, the school and its students benefit from the strength of partnership with the global church. Says Mrs. Kambole, “The hope of Musonda children…. realizing their potential does not lie on the government but lies on an informed church that cries out for justice.”

The G20 will meet in London on 2 April 2009 amidst a current financial crisis which presents a number of potential problems for both communities living in poverty and the rich countries. As the leaders of the 20 leading economies meet they plan to draw up a blueprint for a new global economy that will rise out of the rubble.

The current financial crisis presents numerous challenges:

• It will hurt economies in both the north and south.
• Growing numbers of people in the North and majority South will fall below the poverty line and find themselves vulnerable to economic
• shocks and downturns
• Donor countries are likely to be more introverted, less concerned about international affairs, finding less money available to spend on matters other than their own economy and services.
• Countries may fall back into protectionist measures that will damage trade and market access for poor countries like Zambia

Micah Challenge Zambia is calling Christians to rise up and join together in prayer: that our new global economy might be

more squarely founded on the values of our creator God; that the poor amongst us would be lifted up; and that from beneath the shadow of the global economic crisis there might emerge the hope for a better world.

The systems and structures of our world either glorify God or they diminish His glory. And who will raise a voice and reach out a hand to conform these things to God’s model, if not us his people? Rise up with us in global prayer for a better world.

Personal Devotion

Use this guide bellow to pray on each of the 7 days in the run up to the G20

Pray with your family and/or friends

On 2 April join thousands in prayer across the globe. Get together with friends, organization, church or family and pray for the G20 Summit.

Get you church to pray

On 29 March during church service get your church to pray for the G20 Summit. Alternatively a organize church members to meet together early in the morning to specifically pray for this summit.

Tell others about this call to prayer. Email your friends this message to help spread the word.

To download Rise Up Prayer Guide and Powerpoint for use during church service click below:

http://www.micahchallenge.org.uk/resource/G20_Prayer_Resource.pdf

http://www.micahchallenge.org.uk/resource/Rise_Up.ppt

“…what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God” Micah 6:8

As we called for this meeting it was our observation that Christian professionals are socially, economically and politically alienated from the main stream of national development. The church most often does not have adequate and reliable data to engage with precision and certainty on the nature, extent and magnitude of national problems. We sensed that there is room for the church through its Christian professionals to speak prophetically into gaps that are in the policies and guidelines for government institutions dealing with development, especially in areas of HIV/AIDS, gender, youth, trade and poverty. We identified monitoring of the implementation of our national budget as one way Christian professionals can engage with national developmental issues. Government normally comes up with good budget to address issues facing our nation but the citizen especially the church rarely hold the government accountable in the way it implements the activities.

Resolutions of the Savoy Hotel meeting were shared with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ). Some of the resolutions were part of EFZ’s presentation to the Parliamentary Expanded Committee on Estimates. See below an article from the Post Newspaper which captured the EFZ presentation on the national budget.

Government should cut NCC Delegates –EFZ 9th February, 2009.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) on Friday submitted to a parliamentary Expanded Committee on Estimates that the government should cut down on the number of National Constitution Conference (NCC) delegates due to the global economic crisis.

The committee, which was chaired by Lukulu East Member of Parliament Batuke Imenda, comprised chairpersons of all parliamentarian select committees.

Making the submission on the 2009 budget estimates, EFZ advocacy programme officer Myiya Mwandawande said the current economic situation could not support such a large number of delegates at the NCC.

“With the current economic meltdown, we ask government to scale down the number of membership in the NCC in order to free up some resources for economic development. We are aware that there are people participating in the NCC in the name of the church. But I would like to state that these are some of the people government can remove because EFZ is not participating in the NCC. So these people are either representing themselves or their individual churches, not the EFZ,” he said.

Mwandawande further submitted that the government should reduce on the number of ministries and channel more funds into job creation.

“We recommend that the government reduce the number of ministries in order to have a lean government which will exhibit government’s commitment to save money. These funds will in turn be redirected to the social sector such as education and health. We further recommend that the government should avail more funds towards the preservation of jobs and creating new ones and ultimately protecting those in the mines,” he submitted.

Mwandawande also said the government should cut down expenditure on VIPs.

Government should cut down expenditure on VIPs through Ministry of Works and Supply. We therefore ask government to rationalize expenditure toward actual poverty reduction programmes aimed at empowering communities through social and economic sectors’ increased funding. We ask the government to uphold to windfall taxes in the mining sector. Funds raised from same should be directed to the social sector,” he said.

On agriculture, Mwandawande submitted that members of parliament and the government review the use of funds channeled to the agriculture sector.

“The government together with all the stakeholders should develop an accountability and transparency programme to deal the agricultural sector. Members of parliament and government to review the actual expenditure for funds availed to small scale farmers and the improvement of food security. We recommend the review of staff and ministerial heads who mismanaged the resources in the previous financial year. It would be outrageous to give them custody of extra funds,” submitted Mwandawande.

On the 2009 National Budget

By Micah Challenge Zambia in conjunction with  the Ndola Pastors Fellowship

February 11, 2009

As pastors in Ndola we are very conscious of the environment in which God has placed us in. As we release our statement on the National Budget which was presented to Parliament on 30^th January 2009 by the Hon. Minister of Finance and National Planning, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane for the year 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009. The Theme of the budget was “Enhancing growth through competitiveness and diversification.”

This budget was presented on the backdrop of the Global economic and financial crisis and which significantly affected performance of the economy in 2008 and will pose challenges in the quest to reduce poverty levels as desired under the FNDP and Zambia Vision 2030. As we look around on the Copperbelt we are already seeing the effect of the global economic melt down.

Positive Steps

We would like to start by commending the government for the positive indicators that the Zambia economy had registered in 2008. However, the good fortunes where turned round in the fourth quarter as Zambia started to feel the effect of global economic recession. We would like also to commend the government for some positive outlooks contained in the 2009 National Budget. Some of these are:

1. The proposed 37 percent increase in the allocation to the Agriculture Sector this year.
2. The Government’s commitment to extending the benefits of growth and development across the whole nation through the devolution of appropriate service deliveries to local authorities.
3. The Government intends to address the question of competitiveness by dealing with the high cost of doing business.
4. The Government has a commitment to the development of the agricultural sector as a key to the poverty reduction program.
5. The Government has set up three initial Multi Facility Economic Zones in Lusaka and the Copperbelt
6. The Government has outlined efforts to improve the performance of the tourism sector.
7. The government has allocated 12.9 percent of the budget to the health sector.

Major Concerns

1. Poverty Reduction

The budget speech does not march the deeds in the yellow book. Under poverty reduction programs (PRP), there is money allocated for workshops, conferences, audits, management of petroleum, paying outstanding utility bills, drafting legislation, construction of offices, travel and production of documents, honestly how low can you refer these aspects to (PRP) when you want to achieve growth by 5%. There is a lot of wasteful expenditure.

We would therefore ask our Members of Parliament to help the nation understand that the budget speech does not meet with the reflections in the yellow budget. We would like to see a more pro-poor budget that meets the aspirations of the majority of the poor and helps us to attain the Millennium Development Goals.

Surely, in a year of financial crisis, falling commodity prices and less revenue, the Ministry of Works and Supply used K9.537 billion in 2008 for very important people (VIP) residential furniture, curtains, carpets, linen and banqueting suite. This year another K3.286 billion has been allocated for maintenance of VIP houses and other leaders’ houses, translate all these amounts into education and health services. Genuinely, would you say these expenditures carry on appreciable social and economic return?

We therefore asks our government to rationalize expenditure towards actual poverty reduction programs aimed at empowering communities through social and economic sector increased funding.

2. Auditor General Report

It is saddening to know that huge sums of money as much over K700 billion are being plundered at the expense of National Development. We ask our honourable members of parliament to come together and formulate a plan together with civil society and the church on how we can recover that money because the government has proved to have failed to bring the culprits to book.

Our concern is that the same staff who mismanaged the resources in the previous financial year are yet to be in custody of even extra 2 trillion. We also call on Members of Parliament to strengthen various investigative wings of the government such as ACC, DEC and the Police in order to intensify the fight against corruption.

3. Mining

This year’s budget indicates that the mining sector recorded positive growth of 4.9 percent in 2008, comparing favourably with growth of 3.6 percent in 2007. Our concern in this sector is dropping windfall and reduction of mineral taxes. The mining companies have been complaining about costs of inputs in production. However, the recent development shows that ordinary oil has come down by US$ 100 per barrel which is about 60 to 70percent down. How has that affected the profitability of the mines? “How come they are closing?”

We are therefore asking government to re-direct that money for the windfall to the social sectors or rather than hike the P.A.Y.E for the worker. It is our sincere hope that our members of parliament will help us in the deliberations to ensure government changes this decision regarding the windfall and reduction of mineral taxes, Zambian also need to benefit from copper resources.

4. Agriculture and Food Security

We ask government to channel more resources to agriculture and other tangible agro programs that will benefit small scale farmers at household level. It is our conviction that our members of parliament will help during the subsequent deliberations on the budget to ensure the monies are utilized for the purposes that will serve communities at household level as compared to workshop, fuel and travel allowances for government workers. The K35 billion for small-scale farmers meant for ensuring national food security is welcome. However, as we ask our members of parliament to ask government to review the actual indicated expenditure of these allocations, with a focus to improve food security at household level.

5. Social Sectors

We welcome the increase to the allocation in the health sector by 12.9 percent. However, our concern is raised on why the Zambian Government has failed to adhere to their commitment to increase the health budget in line with Abuja declaration 2001 of 51 heads of state Zambia inclusive of 15% commitment towards budgeting to the heath sector. Zambia’s health sector requires urgent redress to end premature death resulting from deficiency in health service delivery. Our appeal to the government and our members of parliament is that for us to achieve all the MDGs related to health we need to ensure that all resources allocated to the health sector are prudently managed and ring fenced towards actual households and individual health priorities.

Final remarks

1. The economy is too dependent on mining though pronouncements have bee made to diversify the economy though not much has been done. We call on the government to learn from the current fall of copper prices and other commodity prices to institute measures to diversify the economy by seriously promoting agriculture, tourism and manufacturing.
2. The budget does not seem to address specific interventions which can lead to economic recovery. At the same time the budget is not realistic because the government is thinking in terms of raising more money without telling us how they are going to cut down on the costs. We recommend that the government reduces the number of government ministries in order to have a lean government which will exhibit government’s commitment to save money in order to redirect more resources to social sectors such as education and health.
3. We call on government to enact a specific bill which will lay out its plans and commitments to infrastructure development.
4. We observed that Decentralization is a good strategy. However, this can not be fully implemented due to lack of capacity in the local authorities and if not checked this can lead to gross mismanagement of the resources
5. We call on the government to release monthly reports to show how the budget is fairing. This information can be made available in the Parliamentary Constituency Offices. We believe that making this information readily available will increase accountability.
6. The government is called upon to devise an industrial revolution plan which will see us add value to raw materials such as copper, uranium, and cobalt in stead of the present trend of exporting raw materials.
7. Economic development zones: is this the most strategic way to develop our economy. Why only relocate economic Zones on the Copperbelt and Lusaka. We need economic Zones to set up in rural areas as a well of stimulating rural development. Furthermore industries should be taken to places where raw materials are found. It was also noted that the present design of the economic zones favour more foreigners than indigenous entrepreneurs. The government is also called upon to consider setting up an economic zone in Ndola’ as Industrial area which seems to be going to waste due to lack of economic activity in the area. As a way of expanding the manufacturing base we would like to call on the government to locate Multi Facility Economic Zones in places where there are raw materials instead of localising these facilities in Lusaka and the Copperbelt only.
8. We also call on the Government to quickly conclude business in the NCC in order to free up some resources for economic development.
9. We call on the government to reduce interest rates in order to stimulate economic activity by reducing the cost of doing business.
10. We call on the government to deal with the budget cycle in order follow through and implement the budget. We propose that the government considers presenting the budget to Parliament by October rather the preset trend of presenting the budget in January or February.
11. We call on the government recapitalize NCZ in order to show its commitment to the agriculture sector. It does not make sense to import fertilizer at a high cost when the same can be sourced locally and save the nation missions of forex. If the government does not have a capacity it should invite a reputable foreign investor to partner with in order to revamp NCZ. This we believe will help build the capacity of the fertilizer support program
12. We do not agree with government intentions to run the mines. Instead this can be done in partnership with companies local or foreign and shares floated on LUSE in order for citizens to participate in financing these institutions.
13. It is our sincere hope that our members of parliament will help us in the deliberations to ensure government changes this decision regarding the windfall and reduction of mineral taxes, Zambian also need to benefit from copper resources.
14. The K100, 000 increase on the threshold PAYE (K600, 000 to K700, 000) does not realistically represent majority of those in employment. We would like to ask government to increase the PAYE to the minimum amount of K1, 800,000 to meet the ordinary Zambian household needs according to the food basket.
15. We also call on the members of Parliament to prioritise the empowerment of the youth and scale up HIV interventions among the youth.

Take part in attaining MDGs, Zambians challenged

TIMES OF ZAMBIA, Monday, October, 20, 2008 – HOME NEWS

By Times Reporter

MICAH Challenge Zambia has challenged the people of Zambia to actively participate in the attainment of the millennium development goals (MDGs).

The organisation’s facilitator, Lawrence Temfwe said on Sunday during an inter-denominational gathering at the Bread of Life Church in Ndola that people needed to work towards achieving the MDGs and not leave it entirely to the Government.

He said everyone needed to work towards achieving the MDGs in order to fight poverty.

“It is a duty of all Zambians to work towards the achievement of MDGs by doing something about it or by getting the Government to give the people what they need,” Reverend Temfwe said.

He said according to the 2008 Zambia Progress Report, seven MDGs were most likely to be attained leaving out one.

Rev Temfwe said the goal to attain eradication of extreme poverty was most likely not to be attained by 2015.

He, therefore, called on every Zambian to find something to do in order to achieve the attainment of eradicating extreme poverty.

Rev Temfwe said the Church should pray fervently and encourage congregants to act towards achieving the MDG of eradicating poverty in seven years.

One of the speakers at the event, Father Miha Drevensek said that to achieve the sixth MDG – to combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases,- everyone had to participate.