NGO Educational Developments
and Neo‐liberalism in Africa: thecase of Zambia
By Dr. Peggy Mwanza1Outline• What is Neo‐liberalism?
• Introduction of Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• Effects of SAP• NGO Educational Provision• Voices of NGOs

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What is Neo‐liberalism?
• Fairclough (2003) draws our attention to Bourdieu (1998)
who described neo‐liberalism as a political project for
facilitating the re‐structuring and re‐scaling of social relationsin accordance with the demands of an unrestrained global
capitalism.
• This implies that neo‐liberalism is a political ideology that
requires a strong state to facilitate the reforming of theeconomy and restructuring of social relations for profit
maximisation in a free market economy.
3What is Neo‐liberalism (Cont’d)• The neo‐liberal agenda is now dominant in development discourse
and action.
• Over ten years ago Cammock pointed out that ‘the new development
orthodoxy’ favours a set of prescriptions for developing anddeveloped economies alike. He argues further that the newdevelopment paradigm represents an overturning of the welfare
statist / social democratic development orthodoxies of the 1960s andindeed of the institutionalised socialist version of the state‐leddevelopment, it may be considered as the re‐emergence of a type of
capitalism (Cammack, 2002).
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What is Neo‐liberalism (Cont’d)• This kind of capitalism puts emphasis on neo‐liberal economics andliberal democracy. The associated economic and social policies of
neo‐liberalism became central to the state's role in America under
Ronald Reagan in the late 1970s, in the UK under Margaret Thatcher
in the 1970s, and in New Zealand under the influence of Roger
Douglas, the finance minister of the Fourth Labour Government, inthe 1980s (Olssen , 1996:338).

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What is Neo‐liberalism(Cont’d)• The main prescriptions of neo‐liberalism include ‘an emphasis on market
principles and production of profits; a minimalist role for the state;deregulated labor market; and flexible forms of governance’ (Rizvi et al,
2005:12).These main principles of neo‐liberalism are also highlighted bysuch terms such as the ‘Washington Consensus’. The term, Washington
Consensus, refers to the preferred policy prescriptions of the world’s
developed nations and mainly Washington‐based agencies such as theWorld Bank and IMF during the 1980s and 1990s. These preferred policy
precepts included the policy of fiscal disciplining, new public spending
priorities, financial liberalisation, trade liberalisation, increased foreign
direct investment, knowledge economy, decentralisation, and public‐
private partnerships (Williamson, 1993).
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What is Neo‐liberalism(Cont’d)• Hill (2003) and (Kumar and Hill, 2009) also draw our attention to therequirements of the current globally neo‐liberalism within national
states which include: the provision of a market in goods and services‐
including private sector involvement in welfare, social, educationaland other state services; and the restructuring of the management of
the welfare state on the basis of a corporate managerialist model
imported from the world of business. Also, the needs of the economy
dictating the principal aims of the school education, the world of
business as well is to supply a model of how it is provided andmanaged (Hill, 2003; Hill and Kumar, 2009).
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Introduction of Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• The 1980s and early 1990s saw a wave of neo‐liberalism breaking
across countries in the developing world (Hanson and Hentz,
1999:479).
• Economic decline in Zambia, as elsewhere in other parts of Africa
compelled national governments to borrow heavily from internationalbanks such as the World Bank and the IMF which resulted in many
governments in Africa to embrace market oriented policies due toconditionalities attached to loans.

8Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• Sharp economic decline was experienced in many parts of Africa in the
1970s and 1980s (Thompson, 1997). For example, in Zambia the crisis in
the economy occurred from the mid‐1970s and was caused by declining
copper prices on the international market coupled with a rise in world oil
prices (Kelly, 1991; Lungwangwa, 1999).
• The economy of Zambia was adversely affected as it depended on copper
as its major export and main foreign earner. GRZ‐UNDP (1996) explains thatas early as the 1970s, when copper prices fell, the Government of Zambia
sought assistance from the IMF to rectify imbalances in the balance of
payments. By the mid‐1980s, Zambia was borrowing heavily and falling
deeper into external debt such that total debt stock grew from US $ 3.25
billion in 1980, to US $ 4.05 billion in 1985, to US $ 7.2 billion in 1990
(Henriot, 1997:41).
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Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• However, unable to meet debt servicing requirements and withforeign exchange diminishing, the government led by the first
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda agreed to begin economic
reforms insisted upon by the World Bank and IMF as conditions forfurther assistance. Thus in Zambia, the Structural Adjustment
Programmes (SAPs) were first implemented in the early 1980s by the
one‐party regime of Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence
Party (Hanson and Hentz, 1999; Larmer, 2005).

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Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• However, the government led by the former President Kenneth
Kaunda showed little commitment to the reforms or to compliancewith the associated IMF and World Bank conditionalities. This was
mainly because the resulting cuts in state funding of health,education, and food fuelled the rising discontent among many
Zambians. As a result, the government decided to abandon Structural
Adjustment Programme reforms. On 1 May 1987, the former
President Kenneth Kaunda and his supporting party, UNIP, abruptly
broke with IMF programme as they regarded International Financial
Institutions neo‐colonial (Hanson and Hentz, 1999:482). The Kaunda
regime viewed the IMF/World Bank conditionalities as harsh.
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Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• However, SAPs appeared again in Zambia due to changes in political
government. The Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) was
elected in 1991 after 17 years of a single party, the United National
Independence Party (UNIP) led by Kenneth Kaunda. The MMD waselected on a platform built on neo‐liberal policies (market‐oriented
policies), which were described as “too aggressive for even the IMF’s
tastes” (Hanson and Hentz, 1999:483).

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Neo‐liberalism in Zambia(Cont’d)• The MMD Government fully implemented the neo‐liberal policies
which were market oriented packaged in the Structural Adjustment
policies.
• As Larmer (2005:30) points out, ‘the MMD Government, led by theformer Chairman General of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions
Frederick Chiluba (previously a leading critic of IMF‐influenced
policies), implemented one of the most radical programmes of
economic liberalisation in Sub‐Saharan Africa’.

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Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• These SAP policies included: imposition of user fees
for health and education, removing subsidies frombasic commodities such as maize meal, imposing astrictly balanced budget, devaluation of the kwacha(Zambia’s currency), privatisation of large government
corporations (parastatals), reform (down‐sizing) of thecivil service, and trade liberalisation and reduced pricecontrols.
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Neo‐liberalism in Zambia• The implementation of SAPs in Zambia meant that families were now
required to pay school fees. It is important to note that while there
had always been some payment expected for schooling, it was
minimal and therefore affordable even by the very poor. But expenses
had arisen sharply in the period 1992 and 1994 (Henriot, 1996).
Actually, the steep increase in school fees had happened at the sametime that the income earning capacity of many Zambians had been
reduced through retrenchments, agricultural sector decline and soforth.

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Effects of SAP• Indeed, SAPs have had devastating effects on the socio‐economic
development of Zambia. As Mwansa writes: “All in all, the experienceof SAP throughout Africa has been disastrous. The magnitude of thehuman tragedy caused by SAP may not be easily understood to‐day”(Mwansa, 1995:67).
• Additionally, Alexander and Mbali (2004:140) point out: “The social
consequences of structural adjustment programmes have been
evident in Africa for two decades.” Up to this day, the effects of SAPs
are still prevalent. SAPs have ensured an increase in the proportion ofZambians living in poverty. 68 percent of the Zambian population fell
below the national poverty line in 2004 (Ministry of Finance andNational Planning, 2006:2).
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Effects of SAP• SAPs have negatively impacted on the education sector in Zambia.
Like many countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Zambia entered the 1990s(the period of the full implementation of SAPs) with a major crisis in
its provision of Basic Education due to reduced funding (Ministry of
Education, 2007). As result, INGOs and National NGOs in Zambia
have increasingly become involved in the provision of education.

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Neo‐liberalism & Education Policy• Purpose of education• Governance of education• Funding of education

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Purpose of Education
What is education for?
Human Capital – Human Interest
Education as:• A public good
• A private good
• A tool for market gains → social efficiency viewMarket efficiency > social equity
19Governance of Education• Changes to national education systems• Competition• Labor market needs• Standards• Quality• New actors, new expectations, new mechanisms• Examples: GMRs, OECD indicators

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Funding for Education• Focused on primary education• Minimal provision for secondary, tertiary,
vocational education and training• Cost recuperation in higher education• Privatization of provision• Funding conditions• No overall aid improvement for education

NGO Educational Provision• However, although INGOs and National NGOs are indeed key partners
in the government’s attempts to implement education policy inZambia, there are often countervailing forces at work to limit theirefficacy. Such forces are frequently economically – driven.

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NGO Educational Provision(Cont’d)• Indeed, NGOs are operating in a challenging global environment.
Ilon (2008) notes that NGOs are often required to act as policy agentsof donor organisations; as NGOs increasingly vie for developmentmonies, the international fund‐seeking environment becomes morecompetitive; and this competitive environment has meantcompetition between NGOs.

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NGO Educational Provision(Cont’d)NGOs’ dependence on international aid agencies gives rise toimportant questions concerning, NGO‐State relations, and the ability ofNGOs to act independently in pursuing their goals. Edwards and Hulme(1998) note that official funding does the following: (i) encourages
NGOs to become providers of social and economic services on a muchlarger scale thitherto, even though their long‐term comparativeadvantage in this field is doubtful; (ii) compromises the performance ofNGOs in other areas of development activity such as institutional
development and advocacy; (iii) weakens the legitimacy of NGOs as
independent actors in society; and (iv) distorts the accountability ofNGOs away from the grassroots and internal constituencies, andoveremphasises short‐term, quantitative outputs.
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Voices of NGOs
• The research findings by Mwanza (2013)revealed that donor priorities haveaffected NGO programmes. NGO officers complained that donor funding
has conditions attached to it. For example:• We follow what donors say. We just have to follow their conditions. We
have to follow the contract that we signed with them when receiving thefunds. This is a problem! Let’s say donors give us 20 million kwacha8 tosponsor girls’ education and then as an organisation we decide to include aboy, this becomes a problem with the donor. This will not be accepted by
the donor (NGO Officer 6, 2011).

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Voices of NGOs
• As an organisation our work is based on “Activity based budgets”.
Therefore, if there is any money remaining after doing a certain
activity and we feel we can invest the money in another activity, thenwe have to ask the donor if we can use the money for that activity butof course, it has to be in line with the objectives of the organisation(CSO Officer 2, 2011)26

The contribution of donors and NGOs to the policy development
process in their interactions with the government of Zambia.
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Government and education policy•

Power but partnership rhetoric

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Human rights
UNESCO
Aspirations
Funding
Neoliberal agendas
Donors
Advocacy
Service delivery
Partnership

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Human rights
UNESCO
Aspirations
Funding
Neoliberal agendas
Donors
Advocacy
Service delivery
Partnership
NGOs

Funding
Neoliberal
agendasUNESCO

Donors

Advocacy
Service delivery

Aspirations

Partnership

Human rights

NGOs
Government andeducation policy
Power butpartnership
rhetoric27

Dependence on Foreign aid• Dependence on external aid does not work in terms of satisfying the
local educational needs of access, equity and quality. As one of theAfrican presidents, Rwandan President Kagame in a September 2007
interview with Time Magazine remarked:

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Dependence on Foreign aid (Cont’d)• Now, the question comes for our donors and partners: having spent somuch money, what difference did it make? In the last 50 years, you‘vespent US $ 400 billion in aid to Africa. But what is there to show for it? And
the donors should ask: what are we doing wrong, or what are the people
we are helping doing wrong? Obviously somebody’s not getting somethingright. Otherwise, you’d have something to show for the money. The donors
have also made a lot of mistakes. Many times they have assumed they are
the ones who know what countries in Africa need. They want to be theones to choose where to put this money, to be the ones to run it, without
any accountability. In other cases, they have simply associated with thewrong people and money gets lost and ends up in people’s pockets. We
should correct that (Time Magazine, 2007:online).
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•

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Arigatou gozaimasu
Thank you for listening31