‘Good economic gains’ not being felt in rural areas – Mucheleka

‘Good economic gains’ not being felt in rural areas – Mucheleka
By Fridah Zinyama
Mon 12 Apr. 2010, 04:00 CAT

CIVIL Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) executive director Patrick Mucheleka has said the good economic gains that the government has been talking about should correspond with a reduction in poverty in rural areas.

Zambia last year ended the year with a single digit inflation rate of 9.3 per cent and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 6.3 per cent, a situation which was highly unexpected especially as the country was recovering from the global financial crisis.

The government is optimistic that the country will continue on this good economic path, especially as next year is an election year.

But even as government cites these positive achievements occurring in the economy, stakeholders have questioned whether ordinary Zambians in rural areas have benefited from all these macro-economic gains.

In an interview yesterday, Mucheleka said even though the country could boost of positive economic growth, there were no corresponding effects on the ground where ordinary Zambians are found.

“These good economic gains are not being felt especially in rural areas where hard core poverty is prominent,” he said.

Mucheleka challenged the government to dispute this fact and provide information which would indicate that people in rural areas were benefitting from the 'so-called' positive economic gains.

“Even government in the Fifth National Development Plan review admitted that they have not tackled the issue of poverty in rural areas,” he said.

Mucheleka said there has been no political will on the part of the government to ensure that conditions in rural areas were improved.

“Priority areas which can help to address poverty levels like agriculture have not continued to receive adequate resources to improve production,” he said.

“Infrastructure in these areas has continued to be poor and affects the transportation of the little crops that are produced in these areas to proper markets.”

Mucheleka said the health sector in rural areas had continued to be deplorable, with people having to walk long distances to get medical care.

“Even when they access these health centres, there is no medical personnel to attend to them and no medicines to be given to the sick,” he said.

Mucheleka said education standards in rural areas had continued to go down, with no enough teachers and teaching tools for pupils.

“Resources from the mining sector are not being directed to some of the challenged sectors like health and education,” he said, adding that all this was adding to the worsening situation of poverty in rural areas.

Mucheleka said whenever anyone talked about positive economic growth, it should correspond with the most vulnerable in society.

“It should address issues of whether the livelihood of the people in rural areas has been adequately improved,” said Mucheleka.