May 2003 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: Holistic and Decentralised Approaches Critical to Efficencty and Equity in Health Services, Says JCTR

The JCTR monthly Basic Needs Basket, a tool for the estimation of the cost of living for a family of six in Lusaka, has once again shown that to survive or indeed to have access to three meals per day for a family of six is the hardest thing to achieve for most households in Lusaka and wider in Zambia, both for households with members in and out of employment. In its composition, the Basic Needs Basket highlights average costs of food items such as mealie meal, beans, kapenta, cooking oil, eggs, meat, vegetables, etc., and essential non- food items such as energy, water, housing wash and bath soap, etc. For the month of May the total cost of the Basic Needs Basket amounted to K1,028,650. There is some reduction in the overall cost of food only compared to the previous month, mainly due to the reduction in the price of mealie meal which has gone down from an average of K41,800 in April to K36,500 in May. While the price of mealie meal -- a significant determinant in the overall cost of food only has dropped mainly because of positive outcomes in the current agricultural season, other food items such as vegetables have shown either some relative stability or some increase compared to last month.