Zambia: Skilled Women Better Placed To Fight Poverty

- Dorcas Chileshe, Lusaka (IPS): June 5, 2001

Ruth Banda, 30, thought she would never lift herself out of poverty.

Her troubles multiplied when her husband, let go from the insurance company where he had worked for 10 years, was denied a severance package and fell into a depression from which he never recovered. When he died eight months after his lay off, the newly widowed Banda had to fend for herself and their four children. Refusing to go back to her parents in the village, Ruth Banda opted to stay with her younger brother in a shanty settlement in the capital Lusaka. Unable to attend the local school, her children were turning into street beggars, she recalled.

This "no way out" predicament is one that many women in Zambia find themselves in.

Battling with a high level of poverty. Zambia has a population of about 10 million, about 70 per cent of whom live in abject poverty, according to data from Zambia's Central Statistics Office (CSO). Women, who are the hardest hit, constitute 51 per cent of Zambia's population.

According to a CSO study in 1998, women have the highest level of poverty due to illiteracy, which is compounded by the fact that more girls drop out of school than boys. The study warned that poverty would worsen, especially among the growing number of female-headed households.

To make ends meet, Banda, like many Zambian women, joined the Program of Urban Self Help (PUSH), established in 1991, to alleviate poverty among urban dwellers. Women make up 80 per cent of the participants. The program, which is funded by the World Food Program (WFP), helps an increasing number of women who are becoming more vulnerable to poverty as a result of their spouses losing their jobs.

These layoffs are commonplace in Zambia since the government introduced the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) ten years ago. Mass layoffs forced thousands of people to move into illegal settlements, which resulted in a sharp increase of unplanned settlements, also known as "compounds." Most compounds, with a population of about 10,000 to 20,000 in each, lack proper roads and sanitation facilities.

This situation prompted PUSH to start the process of constructing good roads, digging pit latrines and water wells. Initially, participants were given food in return for work. The program, thus, became commonly known as "Food for Work." But the program has changed in scope, earning a new name "Food for Assets," because not only do the women get food, they also plough back assets into their communities.

The women are made to undergo a three-month theoretical training in road construction, pit-latrine construction as well as in making safe water wells. During this three months of intensive training, no food is given out. After this course, the women are given a chance to practice what they learned: constructing roads, building pit latrines and digging water wells within their communities for six months. Then they are given food such as maize meal, beans, cooking oil and salt to use in their homes. After six months, the women have gained enough skills to work or start their own businesses. As soon as they start working, PUSH recruits another group of trainees and the process continues.

PUSH National Coordinator Mwape Lubilo says they introduced the skills training program after realizing that giving out food only was not adequate. She says the trained women are now able to get contracts to construct roads, pit latrines and water wells. "A lot of construction companies approach us to hire the services of the trained women to work on road rehabilitation projects. The women are willing to work as a team, and they get good money," says Lubilo.

Basic market research and business skills that they learn also help the women to secure jobs on their own.

Jenala Mwansa, a widow, who was trained by PUSH in Lusaka's Linda Compound, told IPS that she and her four friends have formed a team that goes around constructing pit latrines for residents for a fee. She says business is booming as more people move into the illegal settlement. "When my husband died, I thought it was the end of the world. It's amazing that I am able to pay school fees for my children as well as rent for a two bedroom house from the earnings of my construction skills," says Mwansa.

Mildred Mutati, trained in Lusaka's Jack Compound, says many men in her compound have started treating their wives with respect. According to Mutati, "The quality of life has improved in many households because women are also becoming bread-winners. Disposable income available to the families is increased."

In its Rural Poverty Report 2001, the U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) argues strongly for national and international policies to remove discriminations against women and for empowering the poor to take responsibility for their own development as critical strategies to the fight against poverty.

WFP National Coordinator Robinah Mulenga had nothing but praise for the PUSH program, which is being implemented in nine districts. She is impressed by the impact of the program that has benefited 30,000 women since its inception while conceding that PUSH cannot solve the problem of poverty among the millions of poor Zambian women. She told IPS that by targeting women, her organization intends to empower those who are often marginalized.

PUSH Coordinator Lubilo, believes the program is helping to reduce poverty among women in urban areas in line with the government mandate of reducing poverty by 50 percent by the year 2015. It is also reducing water borne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea as people are being taught to make safe water wells. Apart from the road, pit-latrine and water-well construction skills, PUSH is also planning to link the women to money-lending institutions where they can get small loans to help them start businesses.

Pastor Levi Chama of the Holy Pentecostal Church of Lusaka says the program has had a positive impact on members of his church. "We have so many poor widows in our churches and the best we can do is link them to programs such as PUSH so that they can start fending for themselves and their children," he says.

From the relative comfort of a two-bedroom house and financial independence Ruth Banda says the program has transformed her life. "It feels like a dream that all my four children who had stopped school because of poverty are now back into school."