September 2005 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: JCTR Calls for Serious Efforts at Meeting Millenimum Development Goals in Zambia

The JCTR has constantly highlighted this situation through its simple but very useful monthly Basic Needs Basket that has revealed a general inadequacy of household incomes in relation to meeting essential needs. The Basic Needs Basket is compiled through gathering of prices of essential food and non-food items to estimate cost of living for a family of six in Lusaka, Livingstone, Kabwe, Ndola, Luanshya and Kitwe. The Basic Needs Basket only highlights the essential requirements of food such as mealie meal, kapenta, green vegetables, cooking oil, milk, etc., as well as non-food requirements such as housing water, energy, soap, etc. In the month of August, the cost of food alone in Lusaka was recorded at K513,590 while the total for the Basic Needs Basket was at K1,358,990. Note that this figure does not include other essential costs such as transport, health, fuel, etc. If these are added, the cost would be much higher than K1,358,990.