[{"bbox": [88, 122, 402, 153], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 1.2 Summary of the Action"}, {"bbox": [97, 169, 1133, 250], "category": "Text", "text": "After the 2021 general elections in Zambia, a new administration was elected, under the leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema. The “new dawn” government has expressed strong commitment to reforming the public administration, fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law."}, {"bbox": [97, 260, 1133, 475], "category": "Text", "text": "The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the country's pre-existing macro-fiscal vulnerabilities. The previous administration's handling of public funds and the pandemic's impact on expenditure and growth has precipitated the country towards debt default, consequently dramatically reducing the fiscal space available for public service delivery and putting excessive pressure on revenue mobilisation. As a result, Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms are very high on the political agenda of the new government and aligned with IMF priorities. Corruption and mismanagement of public resources have led the country to its current unsustainable fiscal position and arguably the demise of the previous government. The new administration has committed to improving public sector transparency and accountability, including by enhancing oversight institutions' independence and autonomy."}, {"bbox": [97, 486, 1133, 837], "category": "Text", "text": "The proposed action contributes to MIP Priority Area 3 “To build a more fair, inclusive and peaceful society in Zambia and ensure collaboration between government authorities and non-state actors”. Particular focus will be on specific objective SO 3.2 “Supporting public sector reform for improved delivery of public services and domestic accountability”, Result 3.3 “Efficiency, accountability and transparency of the public administration, enabling quality public service delivery are improved”. The action contributes to the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (1, 16, 17 and 5), the Addis Ababa Action Agenda¹, the new European Consensus on Development² as well as the EU-Zambia CSO Roadmap³ and the Gender Action Plan III (2021-2025)⁴. The action is equally well anchored in the Commission's staff working documents, such as “Collect More – Spend Better⁵”. The Addis Tax Initiative⁶ kept domestic revenue mobilisation (DRM) centrally on the political agenda since 2015, fostering collective action for support of developing partners' capacities to mobilize taxes and duties. The ATI Declaration 2025⁷, launched in April 2021, promotes gender responsive tax systems in developing countries that benefit societies and economies by supporting investment and economic growth, strengthening gender equality, protecting the environment, and reducing inequalities."}, {"bbox": [97, 847, 1133, 982], "category": "Text", "text": "The action aims at supporting the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) to implement its planned PFM Reform Strategy, its Revenue Action Plan, and develop its Medium-Term Revenue Strategy, aimed at restoring fiscal sustainability and improving efficiency and effectiveness of public resource allocation, and spending, for better public service delivery. This will help the country achieve its national development objectives. The Action will also aim at supporting the national accountability system and assist the government in fighting corruption."}, {"bbox": [97, 993, 907, 1020], "category": "Text", "text": "In this context, we propose to structure the action around the following two components:"}, {"bbox": [97, 1033, 1133, 1296], "category": "List-item", "text": "* **Component 1: Public revenue and expenditure management.** The action will support the GRZ to implement its PFM Reform Strategy, with an emphasis on outputs, aiming at strengthening budget credibility. The action further aims at ensuring reliable provision of domestic funding for public service delivery in the social sectors and thus include fiscal decentralisation. This includes strengthening transparency and accountability in budget planning and execution, including procurement. In addition, the action will continue to support the GRZ to collect domestic revenues more efficiently, by assisting in the design of effective, gender responsive, environmentally and socially responsible domestic revenue mobilisation policies. The component will also strengthen the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Finance and National Planning (MoFNP) and other core PFM actors to deliver on their mandate with a focus on change management to implement strategic PFM reforms."}, {"bbox": [97, 1300, 1133, 1355], "category": "List-item", "text": "* **Component 2: Transparency and accountability.** The action will strengthen the national accountability system by enhancing transparent handling of funds, legislative oversight and external scrutiny of the"}, {"bbox": [86, 1428, 803, 1453], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹ https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/2051AAAA_Outcome.pdf"}, {"bbox": [86, 1452, 1120, 1477], "category": "Footnote", "text": "² https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/european-development-policy/european-consensus-development_en"}, {"bbox": [86, 1477, 1115, 1502], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/Brochure%20_%20CSO%20Roadmap%20%282021-24%29.pdf"}, {"bbox": [86, 1501, 870, 1525], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52020JC0017&from=EN"}, {"bbox": [86, 1525, 1142, 1598], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ European Commission, Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, Collect more – spend better : achieving development in an inclusive and sustainable way : staff working document, Publications Office, 2016, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2841/37400"}, {"bbox": [86, 1598, 386, 1622], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ https://www.addistaxinitiative.net/"}, {"bbox": [86, 1622, 1078, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ https://www.addistaxinitiative.net/sites/default/files/resources/ATI%20Declaration%202025%20%20%28EN%29.pdf"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1142, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 4 of 31"}]