UN Green Jobs Programme: Enhancing competitiveness and sustainable business among MMEs in the building construction industry (phase II) Robust, consistent economic growth and single digit inflation… Zambian Government preliminary estimates for 2012 are that the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 7.3% compared with 6.8% in 2011. Consistent with positive economic growth rates has been an improvement in real GDP per capita, which rose to an estimated US$1,500.0 in 2012 from US$1,463.0 the previous year. Analysts suggest that the outlook for the Zambian economy remains favourable in the medium term, underpinned by robust growth and single-digit inflation. Their estimates for the economy project a 6.9% growth in 2012, picking up to 7.3% in 2013, while inflation should remain in single digits, at 8.0% and 8.5% respectively. Zambia moved out of its historical low income country status in 2011. It also significant, that Zambia attained for the first time ever in 2011 a sovereign credit rating. Rating institutions Fitch and Standard & Poor’s awarded Zambia a B+ rating placing it in a rare category among its southern African peers, just behind South Africa and Botswana. On the back of these developments GRZ successfully floated the country’s first ever sovereign bond, USD 750 million for 10 years, in the international markets in 2012. Rising challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequalities… However, this impressive economic growth trend has not translated into relative gains in employment and poverty reduction. Zambia still remains a least developed country (LDC) as defined by the United Nations. In 2006 national poverty stood at 62.8% while in 2010 it was 60.5% representing a marginal decline of 2.3%. Rural poverty in 2006 was 80.3% declining to 77.9% in 2010 while urban poverty in 2006 was 29.7% and marginally declined to 27.5% in 2010. With the exception of Lusaka (24.4%) and Copperbelt Provinces (34.3%), all the remaining provinces have poverty levels above 60% (Census Report, 2010). Available figures as at 2008 showed Zambia’s Gini coefficient, standing at (0.67), indicates a very unequal income distribution and is high as compared with other middle income economies in the sub-region such as Botswana (0.5 in 2008), Namibia (0.59 in 2009), Swaziland (0.515 in 2010) and South Africa (0.531 in 2009). High levels of unemployment especially among youth also overshadow the gains made from strong growth and limited inflation. According to the 2008 Labour Force Survey, though formal employment grew from 416, 324 employees in 2005 to 522, 761 in 2008, its proportion of total employment remained low at only 10 percent of total employment. In contrast, a vast number of largely informal micro, small and medium enterprises provide 90% of the employment, about 4 million jobs in total. In terms of unemployment nationally as at 2008, 16% of the labour force population was unemployed, of which 14% and 17% were male and female respectively. However, a number of stakeholders reported that the situation has since worsened. According to recent government reports 195,744 additional jobs were created in 2012, mainly by the private sector and government parastatals. This however falls short of the demand in view of the more than 300,000 labour force entrants graduating from secondary and tertiary education institutions each year, excluding school and college drop-outs. Zambia’s National Youth Policy has defined youth as comprising those aged 18 – 35 years old. Youth unemployment has reached chronic proportions. According to the 2008 labour force survey, at national level the labour force constituting the age group15-19 exhibited the highest unemployment rate of 25 percent. The rates slowed down to 22 percent for the age group 20-24, and went down to 13 percent for the age group 30-34. The unemployment rate continued to drop and stabilized at an average rate of 8 percent among the age group 35-49, and then rose gradually to an average rate of 10 percent for the age group 50 and older. Young people in Zambia are more than twice likely to be unemployed than adults aged 35 years an