Rural Development Strategy and Performance in Zambia

An Evaluation of past Efforts

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2594444
AutoresPatrick Eze Ollawa
Ano1978
Volume21
Fascículo2
Páginas101
Data de publicação1978-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAfrican Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-0206 • E-ISSN: 1555-2462
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/523665
OpenAlexW2085190403
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas16

As Zambia's Second National Development Plan gradually comes to an end and the country prepares to embark on its Third National Development Plan (hereafter TNDP), in January 1979 both the regime members and policy planners will more than ever before be confronted with the ominous task of matching intentions with performance. A major impetus for this rethinking of development strategy has been the product of a single fact: the strikingly poor performance of the rural sector during the period of the First (1966-1971) and Second National Development Plans (1972-76) (hereafter FNDP and SNDP). Despite the impressive record of economic growth rate achieved since independence in 1964 and despite the ostensible concern of the national leadership for rural development, the rural masses continue to be socially and economically the most relatively deprived social group in Zambian society. Aside from the issue of relative deprivation, other aspects of the poor performance of the rural sector are also discernible. For instance, not only did the anticipated integration or linkages between agricultural production and modern industry envisaged in the FNDP and SNDP (Republic of Zambia, 1966: 1971a) fail to materialize, but also the attraction of the high urban wage structure and mobility opportunities induced large-scale migration of relatively well educated and enterprising individuals to the urban centers. Thus, while 80 percent of the Zambian population lived in the rural areas in 1963, in 1969 it was 71 percent, and in 1974 it was further reduced to 65.5 percent. In direct proportion to the decline in rural population, the urban population has grown from 20 percent in 1963 to 29 percent in 1969 and 34.5 in 1974. Whereas the average annual population growth rate of Zambia's urban centers was 8.9 percent between 1963 and 1974, the average annual growth rate of the rural population was barely 0.5 percent. In 1977 the population of the urban centers stood at 38.5 percent (Central Statistical Office 1975; 1977). Aside from the issue of chronic under-utilization of migrant labor, massive unemployment has also been one of the most serious developmental problems posed to the Zambian regime

Agriculture · Archaeology · Business · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Natural resource economics · Rural development · African history and culture studies · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare