At work in Zambia

Brogan Mulhall,
80:20 Zambia, reflects on the work

I have come to love and respect Zambia. It is full of some of the most amazing, talented, intelligent and alive people I have met in my brief stint on this planet thus far. It is the charm and spirit of Zambia and its people that create a sense of responsibility for someone like me responsibility to engage, support, learn and, sometimes, teach. However, it is the Africa of suffering, helplessness and death that are all too often presented in western countries (mainly through our media) eliciting a sense of guilt, a sense of helplessness, and hopelessness all misplaced.

My friends and colleagues in Zambia agree on the numerous problems facing the country, but one of them is of particular interest to me - there are too many people trying to help out (it didn’t make sense to me at first either!). The country of Zambia, like many other African countries, is in danger of being overwhelmed by aid and all its attendant structures government donors, NGO’s and missionary groups all pursuing their own agendas and often without reference to each other band, more seriously, to Zambians. So what then is an organisation like 80:20 doing in Zambia or, more interesting still, what is a white Australian male, working with an Irish NGO, partnered with an indigenous Zambian Women’s development organisation (‘Women for Change’) doing in Zambia?

The answer is a simple enough LEARNING!

Within our work, our interactions and our relationships with our partners we are learning from Zambia and Zambians on how to respond differently and more effectively. Learning how to work together to provide strategies in response to Zambian issues from the perspective of the many resourceful, informed and educated Zambian individuals and organisations. Using these lessons, 80:20 is working on the ground to provide support in making these strategies tangible and meaningful.
BUT

‘This all sounds like a nice philosophy but how does this help in situations of hunger?’ ‘And what about HIV and AIDS?’ ‘Learning and partnerships are not going to feed kids or provide AIDS-related drugs are they!’ These are valid questions, and the answers are ‘No, they will not’. That is not our job. This job is the responsibility of Zambians, including the hungry and the infected. Our job is to support strategies and programs that work towards long term sustainable solutions (defined by Zambians) in addressing these problems. Our other job is to share the lessons, learnings and challenges with the public in the ‘developed’ world.

So then how exactly does 80:20 do this in Zambia, say for example in the context of HIV and AIDS?

In Zambia, it is estimated that around 21% of the population is infected with the HIV virus, a situation that has continued to worsen over the past 20 years, despite heightened awareness and funding. One explanation for this would be that over the years AIDS experts (nearly always non-African and non-infected) have been delivering their ideas, concepts and solutions in a predominantly medical context and not listening enough to alternative perspectives from organisations like Women for Change our Zambian partners.

WfC maintain that HIV and AIDS are not just medical problems. If it is women that are most infected and affected, then it is a gender issue. If there are undeniable causal links to poverty then it is equally a development issue. If Southern Africa is home to more than half the worlds’ HIV cases then it is also a human rights issue. Through this type of local analysis HIV and AIDS can be tackled as a problem with roots and causes outside of identified medical and sexual ones which have not provided adequate answers for Zambia to date.

One typical example of 80:20’s intervention on HIV and AIDS is in the area of information, awareness and communications. There are 7 major language groups comprised of 72 separate languages in Zambia. Within their work with remote rural communities, WfC noted the serious lack of quality information on HIV and AIDS in relation to gender, development and human rights, and a near total absence of any materials printed in local languages. We have worked to develop, print and distribute these materials to support educational and information intervention. When about 9% (nearly 200,000) of HIV cases in Zambia are babies born HIV+ mainly because women do not/cannot access information on prevention and care for Mother-to-Child HIV transmission, this is an obvious step towards addressing a Zambian issue - the Zambian way!

This is just one example of the work in Zambia - translating real learning into real education from the bottom up. After nearly 3 years in Zambia, nothing else really makes sense to me anymore when it comes to addressing the multitude of issues surrounding our ‘Unequal World’ problem.

Doing ‘Fieldwork’ with Douglas

Traditional Chiefs, human rights and democracy

Since colonisation Zambia, like many other African nations, was forced to adopt western style government and imposed authoritarian leadership. Traditional leaders were pushed further and further into the background with little of their former status or wealth. Although this is the case, a large majority of Zambians would still look directly to chiefs and traditional leaders for leadership and decision-making. Women for Change and 80:20 have been working to bring this traditional leadership structure back into play in Zambian society.

The main objective is to work with traditional leaders to improve levels of civic education, human rights awareness and community development strategies and to deliver appropriate education on topics such as democracy, modern governance, and to provide opportunities for debate and analysis of current legislation e.g. the Land Act, Chiefs Act, Witchcraft Act etc

A typical workshop would involve some 30 leaders selected by Paramount or senior chiefs from some 72 Zambian districts. The selected leaders come together with WfC and 80:20 for a 6-day workshop covering a broad range of political and social issues including gender and HIV and AIDS. The workshops are designed to train trainers and the leaders are then urged to make plans for disseminating the same information to their people at village level.

These workshops are the real ‘life-blood’ of the work in Zambia. The workshops elicit a range of different responses - from anger at the way chiefs have been left behind to frustration at the difficulties they face in engaging the ‘city system’, but mostly it is determination and hope in knowing that they still have a recognised and valued role to play in the
development of good government and democracy in Zambia.