By Nalucha Nganga Ziba Country Director, ActionAid Zambia
As the year 2020 comes to an end, ActionAid Zambia has witnessed with concern a downward spiral in relation to the socio-economic, political governance, and human rights violations in the country.
2020 can be described as a difficult year for Zambia on the economic front, where most of the economic fundamentals deteriorated drastically. The nation’s economic growth was projected at 3 percent; however, it plummeted to negative 4.2 percent as early as quarter two (2) of 2020. The nation experienced its first recession in more than two decades, mainly exacerbated by the advent of COVID-19 and the ever-increasing public debt stock, now standing at $18.5billion. With all recommended debt sustainability indicators and/or benchmarks breached, Zambia became the first African country to default on its debt interest repayments after failing to meet the US$ 42.5 million debt repayment on its US$ 3 Billion Eurobonds on 14th of Novembe