Prioritise formal job creation, JCTR advises govt
By Misheck Wangwe
Fri 24 Dec. 2010, 04:00 CAT
THE government should prioritise formal job creation, says the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR). JCTR social conditions programmes coordinator, Miniva Chibuye, said the creation of decent employment was a precondition for sustained economic growth.
Chibuye said there was need for the government to show commitment towards employment creation if the country was to graduate from a low-income to a middle-income state.
She said it was distressing that while other countries around the world were recovering form the 2008 economic crisis, unemployment remained a challenge in Zambia.
“While there has been a creation of jobs for recent investments, much more needs to be done. The labour scenario is imprecise to lack of recent data showing how many Zambian workers who were laid off have been re-employed and how many were the new entrants,” Chibuye said.
She noted that the draft 2008 Labour Force Survey indicated that though formal employment grew to 522,761 in 2008 from 416,324 employees in 2005, its proportion of total employment remained low at only 10 per cent of total employment in the country.
Chibuye noted that the report had missed data from the post-economic crisis period.
She said during the economic crisis, Zambia was one of the countries heavily affected by job losses and a slowdown in employment creation due to heavy reliance on the copper industry.
Chibuye said most Zambians considered to be in employment had insecure incomes and had not been paid their arrears for a long time.
She said the high levels of unemployment had continued to perpetuate poverty and negatively affect human development due to people’s inability to earn a decent wage leading to a reduction in life expectancy and access to quality education.
Chibuye said the poverty situation in the country had been worsened by the high cost of living in many urban areas as evidenced by the JCTR’s Basic Needs Basket (BNB).
She said for the month of November 2010, the BNB showed a mixed picture.
Chibuye said the increases were a result of upward adjustments in the price of kapenta, dry fish, meat and eggs and many other essential food items.
According to the social conditions research programme of the JCTR, food items increased by K5,550 from K895,000 in October to K900,550 in November.
The total needs basket for a family of six in urban areas stood at K2,861,480 in the month of November.
Labels: INFORMAL ECONOMY, JCTR, MINIVA CHIBUYE
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JCTR urges attention to worsening human development
By Maluba Jere
Fri 19 Nov. 2010, 04:00 CAT
JCTR has urged the government to res-pond to the worsening human development in the country. And Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) has noted that despite the overall level of inflation going down as reported by the Central Statistical Office, prices of commodities typically consumed by average Zambians have increased.
In a statement yesterday, JCTR stated that the 2010 Human Development Report entitled 'The wealth of nations: pathways to human development' revealed that Zambia’s human development situation had deteriorated since 1970.
“According to the report, of the 135 countries in their sample for 1970 to 2010, only three countries, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe have a lower Human Development Index today than in 1970,” stated JCTR’s social conditions coordinator Miniva Chibuye.
“The results therefore mean that Zambia is among the only three countries where people are worse off than they were in 1970 in terms of health, education and levels of income.”
Chibuye explained that according to the report, one of the major contributing factors for Zambia had been the worsening health situation as measured by life expectancy, which is now at 47.3 years.
She said Zambia needed to look beyond meeting the MDG target on primary education if it was to make significant progress towards human development. Chibuye noted that the situation of worsening human development was exacerbated by the high cost of living.
And JCTR has stated that the cost of food alone in October, which includes mealie-meal, vegetables, beans, dry fish, among others increased by K27,150 to K895,000 in comparison with K867,850 recorded in September 2010.
She explained that the Basic Needs Basket (BNB) survey for a family of six in October 2010 was K2, 877,830.
She further advised the government not to be complacent with meeting the Millennium Development Goal on primary education but instead focus on enabling more pupils to complete secondary school and enter tertiary education.
Labels: JCTR, MINIVA CHIBUYE
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Mitigate impact of global food prices, JCTR asks govt
By Kabanda Chulu and Joan Chirwa
Wednesday May 07, 2008 [04:00]
JESUIT CENTRE for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has challenged the government to take practical steps to mitigate the impact of the increasing global food prices on the Zambian situation. And Comesa senior agricultural advisor Dr Cris Muyunda has said rising prices of foodstuffs have affected affordability of basic commodities by many households.
Releasing the monthly findings of the basic needs food basket that has increased from the K683,700 for March to K742,700 for April, JCTR social conditions programme officer Miniva Chibuye yesterday challenged the government to use the needs basket as a basis for reflection and taking of pragmatic actions on the increasing food prices situation.
"The basic needs basket was constructed not to be a mere statistical exercise but as a tool for contributing to the understanding of the dynamics of living conditions of the people seen through cost of food and other essential needs," Chibuye stated. "We urge the government to use the basic needs basket as basis for reflection and subsequent pragmatic action in the on going debate on increasing global food prices and the extent to which this phenomenon might or is impacting on the Zambian situation, particularly on the impoverished."
She stated that there was need to address the rural and urban implications brought about by the increasing global food prices.
"Are the increasing food prices to the benefit of the rural populations? It is true and to observe that high urban food prices can be seen as a way for changing the long time development lopsidedness that has favoured urban populations and therefore driven rural-urban migration," Chibuye stated. "But one needs to recognise that there are preconditions to be met before rural populations benefit from increased urban food prices and such preconditions will include improved productive capacities for rural populations, through among others, irrigation schemes that will facilitate off-season crop production of these populations."
As compared to the cost of basic food for March, which stood at K683,700, the cost of basic food in April increased to K742, 00, representing an increase of K59,000.
In January basic food increased by K26,500, in February by K58,750, March K28,950 and now by K59,000.
If the cost of non-food essentials such as charcoal, bath and washing soap is included, the total figure stands at K1,197,100.
And Dr Muyunda said the regional bloc was deeply concerned with rising prices of foodstuffs in Zambia and other countries.
"The potential impacts of rising prices of food are quite many. For example, most of the incomes in Zambia are spent on food and in the near future, a lot of people will not afford to buy food because of the rising prices of commodities," said Dr Muyunda during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Comesa and Eastern African Farmers Federation (EAFF) in Lusaka on Monday. "We are also concerned about the potential impact on malnutrition. Already, the situation on malnutrition is not good. Of the 800 million population in Africa, about 200 million are malnourished and this figure is likely to increase because of the current situation."
The partnership between Comesa and EAFF is aimed at enhancing agricultural production and marketing in Comesa member countries.
And EAFF president Philip Kiriro said the importation of agricultural commodities would soon become impossible resulting from the current global deficits and rising prices of commodities.
Kiriro said countries producing less food would have serious problems in importing agricultural products.
Labels: FOOD, INFLATION, JCTR, MINIVA CHIBUYE
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