Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what country-specific direct support his Department is providing to Zambia to (a) support economic development and (b) strengthen democratic institutions in that country.

The DFID Zambia economic development portfolio comprises programmes primarily focused on job creation and private sector investment, infrastructure and energy development. It supports the poorest with tools they can use for their own development. These initiatives include:

1. Supporting job creation and regulatory reform in high-potential sectors that provide opportunities for women and youth employment, including agriculture, services to the mining industry, tourism and household services (clean cooking, off-grid energy, on-site sanitation).
2. Fostering innovation and job creation through technical assistance to competitively selected businesses with the potential to create large scale jobs and grow to provincial, national and eventually regional businesses.
3. Increasing access to finance for growing businesses and facilitate new investment sources, including global impact investors (e.g. the ImpactCapitalAfrica initiative), local private wealth individuals (e.g. first-of-a-kind crowd-funding from Zambian residents) and state assets (e.g. engagement with Zambia’s development bank and pension funds).
4. Responding to high levels of urbanisation and Zambia’s geographical challenges by helping municipalities improve urban planning and supporting key Ministries and the private sector to develop more effective infrastructure solutions.
5. Piloting technology applications that deliver on development challenges and create and support sustainable businesses such as in rural mobility and off-grid cold chains.
6. Support climate smart agriculture approaches and financial inclusion for the rural and peri-urban poor.

DFID also provides direct support to create an enabling environment for citizens’ representation. Our support has contributed to 1.7 million new voters registering for the 2016 elections, and it enables Zambians to raise and debate issues that matter to them with their leaders, locally and nationally.