Governance

Good governance is one of the cross-cutting themes in the Embassy’s programme in Zambia. In sectoral programmes, special attention is therefore paid to governance aspects, including the risk of corrupt practices, democratic control and transparency.

GRZ considers Governance a priority cross-cutting issue; the FNDP is committed to a broad Governance programme (Word doc) that includes areas of constitutionalism, transparency and accountability, access to justice and democratisation. The Embassy’s specific Governance activities are focused on three result areas based on the FNDPs governance programme:

strengthening the national governance system, including reforming the electoral system
increasing transparency and accountability, including public finance management and the fight against corruption
strengthening the role of civil society via development of a joint donor funding modality

The Embassy believes that for Governance issues to be tackled successfully, it is essential to co-operate with both Government institutions and Civil Society. Partners include the Office of the Auditor-General, the Electoral Commission of Zambia, the Ministry of Finance and National Planning and law enforcement agencies, but also, critically, organisations such as Transparency International and the National Legal Aid Clinic for Women.

Cooperating Partners (CPs) working on Governance have agreed to a division of labour, whereby the Embassy is one of the active donors. In line with the general trend, the CPs in Governance also strive to align more with country systems and to joint donor arrangements.

4.1 Strengthening national governance systems

The Embassy is developing, in consultation with other Cooperating Partners, medium term institutional strengthening of the electoral process in Zambia through a multi-donor trust fund managed by UNDP. The activity will develop capacity of the Electoral Commission of Zambia, national institutions and civil society organizations in organizing and managing the electoral process. The activity will include the (i) implementation of a continuous voter registration; (ii) development and implementation of continuous civic and voter education; (iii) strengthening the participation; (iv) development of media monitoring strategies; and (v) review of legislative framework of women. See also www.elections.org.zm

4.2 Increasing transparency and accountability

The late President Mwanawasa (in office from 2001-2008) announced a policy of zero-tolerance on corruption. In spite of his apparent efforts to fight corruption, Zambia’s position on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index did not change in 2007 (as compared to 2005 and 2006); meaning that corruption remains perceived as a major problem in Zambia. The Embassy’s efforts on transparency and accountability contributes to the fight and prevention of corruption. One of such efforts is the policy dialogue between the group of CPs and the Government. Furthermore, the Embassy is supporting the following three specific activities:

The Embassy and other Cooperating Partners, such as USAID, Denmark and Finland, are supporting Transparency International Zambia (TIZ), the Zambian chapter of Transparency International. TIZ vision is ‘a Zambia anchored on citizens and institutions of integrity’. TIZ objective is to contribute to the reduction of corruption in Zambia (www.tizambia.org.zm).
The GRZ has embarked upon a Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Programme (PEMFA) with the aim to impact significantly on the quality of public expenditure management in Zambia (www.mofnp.gov.zm/pemfa). The renewed focus on improving public financial management systems can undoubtedly be linked to the impact of the multi-donor General budget Support. The Embassy and 14 other CPs jointly support the GRZ to coordinate, manage, and direct the PEMFA programme. The most prominent PEMFA-components are:
- Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) implementation
- Reformed Budget Preparation and Budget Execution
- Improved Internal Auditing
- Enhancing Parliamentary Oversight
- Public Procurement reform.
The Office of the Auditor General (www.oag.gov.zm) is the supreme audit institute in Zambia mandated to audit all government institutions, parastatal organizations, statutory boards, donor funded agencies and any other institute in which public resources have been invested. Thus, the Auditor General is required to audit all the revenues of the Republic and the expenditures of monies appropriated by parliament and to submit a report to the parliament no later than 12 months after the end of each fiscal year to which the accounts relate. The Embassy, through a delegated arrangement with the Embassy of Norway strategically supports the Office of the Auditor General’s restructuring and institutional development project. The key elements of the support include capacity development (training and institution building) and the enhancement of the audit quality.

4.3 Strengthening the role of civil society

The Cooperating Partners are quite advanced with the development of a mechanism for sub granting to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the area of governance, accountability and advocacy. This would replace the large number of small governance projects of the participating CPs, thereby lowering transaction costs for CSOs and CPs. The Embassy will be among several CPs to co-finance this support.

The Fund will offer core funding to more established civil society organisations (CSOs), selected on a competitive and needs-assessment basis , plus one-off grants and capacity building to smaller emerging CSOs. The organisation of the fund will include a Governing Board, a Fund Manager/ Secretariat responsible for sub granting and an independent Grant Screening Committee for providing a second opinion on funding proposals. The CSO-fund should be operational early 2009.