The State is transparent, accountable, and responsive to people’s needs by demanding justice and accountability on policy implementation, adoption, formulation and practice. This involves building stronger political pressure, by applying coordinated efforts of community mobilisation, dialogue and engagement with policy and decision makers.

Introduction and Background: The Catholic Centre for Justice, Development and Peace (CCJDP), inspired by the Gospel and the Social Teaching of the Church, and taking advantage of the pluralist dispensation brought about by the re-introduction of multi-party politics in 1991, has been operating a Parliamentary Liaison Programme (PLP) in Zambia since 2001.

Introduction: This is a report by CARITAS Zambia on the issues around the allocation, disbursement and utilisation of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Zambia.

Constituency Development Fund was introduced in Zambia in 1995 as a means of providing local authorities in Zambia with discretionary finances for projects identified and implemented with community participation.

The General objective of this research is to investigate the impact of the current land law regime on the livelihoods of peasants in Zambia.

The backdrop of this research is that one of the key principles of the social teaching of the Catholic Church is that of “option for the poor”.

Executive Summary

The advent of lead mining in Kabwe dates as far back as 1904 whilst the mining activities came to an end in 1994 after the closure of a number of mines in Zambia. However, the effects of lead mining though are still being felt and have generated discussions focused on three main areas of concern especially in the affected communities such as Makululu compound of Kabwe town.

Caritas Zambia is one of the leading Civil Society organisations in Zambia with both regional and international linkages. It permeates all Church structures from the National, through Dioceses up to Parish level. In the past three decades, the work of Caritas Zambia through the Episcopal Commissions for Justice and Peace and Development has contributed to national policy reforms, influenced governance practices and contributed to the improvement of livelihoods for the most vulnerable.

The previous Strategic Plan (2010 – 2013) was the third Caritas Zambia strategic plan since 2004. The strategic themes which Caritas Zambia has been focusing on over this period were mainly in the areas of Governance, Economic Justice, Poverty, Food Security, Gender, HIV and AIDS. In the 2010 - 2013 period, issues of the extractive industries, environment, and climate change picked great momentum.

We are indebted to our partners who have supported our work for a very long period of time.  Our current partners are: Caritas Norway, CAFOD, Norwegian Church AID, OSISA, GIZ, Canadian Development and Peace, Caritas Internationalis,  ZGF and USAID.

Caritas Zambia strategic issues have been clustered around four main areas which also form Caritas Zambia programmes namely; Democracy and Governance, The Church and State, Economic and Social Accountability, and Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation. In addition, there is a fifth programme which provides support to all the other four programmes and is called Organisational Development.