September 2006 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: Development Efforts must be Accelerated in Zambia: JCTR Backs Calls for a more Robust Response to Needs of the People
Abstract
The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has strongly called for the breaking of the norm
of basic needs inadequacy that has persisted in Zambia for so many years. At all levels of the Zambian society, especially by the new government, inadequate food, shelter, incomes, employment and other social problems such as HIV/AIDS, children without homes, malnutrition, etc., must be fought in a more robust way than before manifested in tangible outcomes. The endured long years of dehumanizing experiences that have placed people in desperate situations must come to an end. People need to have at least adequate food to free their energies in
pursuit of other activities integral to human existence such intellectual engagements, effective civic
participation, etc.
Description
The JCTR hopes to see a break from this norm of basic needs inadequacy by ensuring that the new
government enables people to have access to quality education and health care, that the country
sustains some of the gains in agriculture while paying attention to other needy areas such as crop
diversification in its practical sense, irrigation, social protection, etc. These efforts must move along
with employment creation. According to the JCTR, Zambia’s natural resource base is too broad, too
rich, to allow for continued deprived conditions of existence for its only 10 million people.