April 2004 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: JCTR Basket Coverage Expanded to Include Livingstone, Kabwe, Ndola, Luanshya and Kitwe

The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has expanded its area of coverage of the Basic Needs Basket from Lusaka to other areas. The areas to which the Basic Needs Basket has been expanded to are Livingstone, Kabwe, Ndola, Kitwe and Luanshya. “This expansion,” says Muweme Muweme, Coordinator of the Social Conditions Research Project of the JCTR, “ was necessitated by the Basic Needs Basket’s intrinsic value and the demand from the people”. There have been several requests for the Basket information from other towns in Zambia and the JCTR could not give the same information of Lusaka to other parts of the country because price data vary depending on many factors. The expansion follows the feasibility study conducted in 2003 by the JCTR which recommended that the Basket, in the initial phase, be taken to places that have similar characteristics to Lusaka. This means that it assumes the same composition of food and non-food essentials as that of Lusaka. According to Muweme, it is the belief of the JCTR that an expanded Basic Needs Basket will be both more representative of the national urban situation of cost of living and more authoritative in respect to discussions on cost of living. As is usually the case with initial efforts, it is expected that there will be more improvements along the way on the collection and accuracy of the information.