Poverty in Zambia - A Two-Sided Sword of Cyanide

Poverty is a serious issue in Zambia.  One reason for this could be the lack of jobs.  Only a small percentage of the young population gain the opportunity to work in public-sector jobs.  Making matters worse, around 9000 formal sector jobs were cut last year, and inflation rates in the country are running rampid at 20% (Masanta).  Also, drug abuse and crime are serious issues plaguing the country and especially the youth population. There’s early marriages, early pregnancy, and STDs like HIV and AIDS.  Since the young population makes up such a majority of the workforce, and crime and drug abuse is so common, many drop out of school and don’t contribute well to the economy, instead contributing to poverty rates.  All of these factors combine to make a big majority of economically unsatisfied youths, which creates more instability in the economy. Zambia’s government says it’s trying to make a change with all of this, but so far haven’t done much (Masanta).

One solution for poverty in Zambia could be cash aid.  Nurith Aizenman of NPR talks of giving povertious families in Zambia cash aid.  The study was done, and concluded that people that were given the cash aid used it seriously.  Essentially, “If they got $100 over the course of a year in handouts, they spent an extra $200 above what they had been spending before — proof that they were using the free money to make more money” (Aizenman).  The families returned lots of money back into the economy, adding benefits to themselves like entrepreneurship (one family bought a mat from their town and sold it for 10 times the price over the river!) and a boost to their own economy, creating a cirle of economic boost.  Plus, the article showed that doing this sort of business “wasn’t easy money” because the families had to really work to get what they wanted. If they already had an idea on how to make money, like a business idea, all they needed was the inital cash boost, which the government would provide.  At the same time, cash aid isn’t perfect, since many people believe that the government is handing out free money to lazy people. Anyone can pose a different perspective against the government and blame them in a different way, so it is tough for the people at the top to decide how they want to approach the situation.

Another solution for poverty could be an Agricultural boost.  This would boost the economy itself, providing more jobs and higher opportunistic ideas to the young population, which makes up a majority of the workforce.  Employment levels would go up if more youths were given land to work on. Masanta says, “No country that has escaped poverty has done so without substantially raising farm productivity.  Food production is essential for a people to be healthy and productive. In terms of jobs and livelihoods, agriculture is more important than any other sector in Zambia. Irrigation and mechanisation would boost agricultural outputs.  Better access to financial services and markets would be useful. Moreover, it would make sense to process food near the villages. Tax exemptions should support this kind of rural development. Moreover, young people should get access to land. Employment opportunities would arise”  (Masanta). Agricultural flourishing could boost other sectors of the economy, like science and education. If everyone received a fair and legitimate education, lots of issues could be solved.

Overall, Zambia needs to look at itself with a different mindset if it wants to change anything.  Cash aid is a promising prospect, but has some “blaming” issues. An Agricultural Revolution could seriously boost the economy and provide new ground for new resources, new education, new fields of study, and entire new lives.

Annotated Bibliography

Aizenman, Nurith. “Cash Aid Could Solve Poverty - But There's A Catch.” NPR, NPR, 9 Aug. 2017,ww.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/08/09/542357298/cash-handouts-could-solve-poverty-but-theres-a-catch.  In this lengthy article, Nurith Aizenman talked about how cash aid could, was, and will change the poverty issue in Zambia.  I think this is a strong article to use in my source. First, he discussed a story of a family’s life changing because of this cash aid thing, proposing the idea of: What if instead of giving materials or goats to families, just giving them cash?  What would happen? Bla bla bla, cultural issues, but the study basically concluded that the people that were given the cash aid used it seriously. “In other words, if they got $100 over the course of a year in handouts, they spent an extra $200 above what they had been spending before — proof that they were using the free money to make more money.”  The families returned lots of money back into the economy, adding benefits to themselves like entrepreneurship (one family bought a mat from their town and sold it for 10 times the price over the river!) and a boost to their own economy, creating a cirle of economic boost. Plus, the article showed that doing this sort of business “wasn’t easy money” because the families had to really work to get what they wanted.  If they already had an idea on how to make money, like a business idea, all they needed was the inital cash boost, which the government would provide. As for trustworthiness, NPR is a national public radio (literally what it stands for). Forbes says “Science Settles it: NPR’s Liberal, but not very”, so they strike for change, but probably are biased about serious issues in America, and wouldn’t really be biased in Zambia.

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Masanta, Frank. “Youth Unemployment Remains a Key Challenge in Zambia.” D+C, 1 June 2017, www.dandc.eu/en/article/youth-unemployment-remains-key-challenge-zambia.  In this article, Frank Masanta Jr. first discusses current issues in Zambia.  One of Zambia's main issues could be drug abuse. Since the young population makes up such a majority of the workforce, and crime and drug abuse is "so common", many drop out of school and don't contribute well to the economy: instead contributing to poverty.  The author talks about drug abuse, minimal education, dropouts from that education, and inflation rates soaring. Then, he proposes solutions! First, an Agricultural boost could boost the economy itself, providing more jobs and higher opportunistic ideas to the young population, which makes up a majority of the workforce.  Employment levels would go up if more youths were given land to work on. Also, an ACTUAL EDUCATION could probably help the country, giving more awareneses of issues in the country like HIV and STDs, and also a science and information technology education. This source is pretty trustworthy. Frank Masanta Jr. is from Zambia himself, so it’s easy to see why he wouldn’t lie: He’s just trying to show what could be done to help his own country!  He also started a charity school in Zambia in 2011, which shows how mind-forward he is. All in all, pretty legit source!

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Ngoma, Jumbe. “Zambia Needs More, Better Jobs to Reduce Poverty and Inequality.”World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2017/06/13/zambia-needs-more-better-jobs-to-reduce-poverty-and-inequality.  In this article, World Bank is talking about how Zambia needs more jobs.  The youthful population “can’t wait” because these types of jobs provide economic growth for the nation.  Most rural citizens live in severe poverty. The organization is trying to solve poverty by creating interesting jobs.  World Bank is a reliable source since its website is built very well and they have an about section with a long page detailing the pride they put in helping the world with their work.  This article is different from the next two articles because it actually puts forth a pretty clear solution about ending poverty in Zambia.

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Rotsky, Nikita. “10 Important Facts about Zambia.” The Borgen Project, borgenproject.org/10-facts-about-poverty-in-zambia/. This article showed the top 10 issues of poverty in Zambia, helping me narrow down my research.  It discussed the issues’ effects on children in this poverty, and how there are serious physical issues with children living in poverty. It also discussed how rural Zambia was the worst, confirming the previous articles’ facts.  Furthermore, the article discussed how diseases HIV affected the poverty rates, which is an interesting development. On a positive note, this article discusse how “Zambia’s ranking on the Human Development Index has increased significantly, from 167 to 141 out of 188 in the span of a year.”  This source doesn’t seem to be very biased. A quick Google search shows that The Borgen Project is a reliable source. I don’t think there’s any biases, just like in the first article. This article is similar to the UNICEF article because it confirms the fact about rural poverty being around 80%.  What’s a little weird is that this one says it’s 83%, but UNICEF says the percentage is only 80%. Maybe there is a little bit of bias thrown around here somewhere; I’m not sure.

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“Zambia : Govt Working on Ways to Alleviate Poverty.” LusakaTimes.com, 13 Sept. 2008, www.lusakatimes.com/2008/09/13/govt-working-on-ways-to-alleviate-poverty.  This article talks about what, if elected, President Rupiah Banda will do to help the people of poverty in Zambia.  He talked about a solution of reducing the cost of fuel prices. I don’t really see how this could seriously boost the economy, since they only considered removing a fraction of the tax off of the cost, but it’s an idea nonetheless.  Furthermore, he said he put off K10 billion for the project, so yeah.  This source is trustworthy. I read the background of “About Us”, and it’s a nonprofit in Zambia trying to improve the lives of the people there.  Good article!

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UNICEF. “The Children - Poverty.” UNICEF, www.unicef.org/zambia/children_5157.html.

In this article, UNICEF explores the different issues with poverty in Zambia.  They talk about incomes falling, and how the poverty line is already high, but around 20% higher in rural areas, making it 80% there.  Poverty also means that children will have physical and mental health issues with growth, which is terrible. UNICEF is a not-for-profit organization and a .org site, automatically boosing its credibilty.  Upon research on Google, multiple sights say it’s a credible source. Possible biases towards Zambia from a US organization may be racism, but that really wouldn’t make sense, because the facts are reliable and real.  A few of the other articles use citations from UNICEF, so it’s very likely that it’s a reliable source.