The Zambia Human Development Report 2011 has been released. The good news is that at 0.395, Zambia’s ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI) is above the average of 0.389 for Sub-Saharan Africa, and slightly above the average of 0.393 for low-HDI countries. [These are 2010 figures]. The bad news, is the huge disparity between the lowest and top performing provinces. The worst performer Western Province scores 0.321, with the top performer Copperbelt province at 0.480 [These are 2008 figures].
Zambia Human Development Report 2011
No wonder the barotse want to go it alone. And this situation will persist for sometime to come as successive gov'ts have not been honest. This problem would have not been there if govts had constructed roads in this province. For nearly 50 years now people in western province have been promised roads. But this has always been followed by excuses of cost and the terrain! Without roads the other stuff like the building of hospitals and schools cannot take place
ReplyDeleteEven the ministry of agriculture stopped cattle vaccination in the 1990s because it is difficult to travel around the province. Any wonder that they want to go it alone. That hdi score will continue to be low as long as there are no roads!
It is not the Government problem but the selfishness of the rulers of Barotseland. If only those who are in leadership could realise that development will not drop from anywhere else like sand, they would have alowed prople to invest in the area.
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