Strengthening parliamentary control in Zambia

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In December 2010, Federal Minister Niebel and the then Zambian President Banda agreed to reprogram EUR 2.5 million of undisbursed budget support funds into a new project to support the Zambian parliament. It is intended to help strengthen parliamentary control and domestic accountability processes in Zambia. In 2013, the BMZ decided to reprogram a further EUR 1.5 million from a non-disbursable tranche of the Community Macroeconomic Support III program (general budget support) into the FC project. Against this background, parliamentary offices are to be built and set up in selected rural and semi-urban areas. In order to make the most of the parliamentary offices in all constituencies, their use is to be improved by developing and providing parliamentary information material nationwide and training staff. The transparency of parliamentary work is also to be increased by expanding parliamentary radio and setting up parliamentary television. The development policy objective of the project is to contribute to good governance, including effective control of the executive by the legislature. The aim of the project is to enable the population to use the parliamentary offices to demand accountability and to increase the transparency of parliamentary work. The target group in the broad sense is the Zambian population, in the narrow sense the population of the constituencies in which the parliamentary offices are set up using development cooperation funds. The total costs are EUR 4.15 million, the FC contribution will be EUR 4.0 million. The sponsor is the administration of the Zambian parliament. The project, together with the TC project Civil society participation in governance reform processes and poverty reduction, forms the field of action Political participation in governance reform processes and poverty reduction in Zambia in the focus area of good governance.