[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1136, 414], "category": "Text", "text": "Zambia's economy, characterised by its reliance on mining, agriculture, and construction, has struggled with socio-economic advancement, poverty reduction, and mitigating inequalities over the past decade. The country is also facing severe challenges from climate change, affecting essential sectors such as agriculture and energy. The country's location in sub-Saharan Africa makes it particularly vulnerable to climate shifts, with high dependence on rain-fed agriculture, making it highly susceptible to changes in precipitation patterns. Moreover, high rates of deforestation for charcoal production and expansion of agriculture land reduce the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks and exacerbate the effects of climate change. While Zambia has policies aimed at addressing climate change, implementation and enforcement can be challenging due to limited financial and technical capacity."}, {"bbox": [96, 413, 1136, 819], "category": "Text", "text": "External and domestic conditions have put pressure on the external balance and the exchange rate² with rising inflation³. However, economic performance has proven resilient despite these recurrent shocks and delays in debt restructuring. Growth is estimated at 4.3 percent in 2023 thanks to strong performance in the non-agricultural and non-mining sectors, despite weakened mining production. While production in the mining sector could pick up in 2024, a period of prolonged dry spell in the middle of the agriculture season is crippling the economy with devastating consequences on agriculture production and electricity generation. The 2022 Poverty Assessment for Zambia highlighted a national poverty rate of 60%, an increase from 54.4% in 2015. Extreme poverty is particularly severe in rural areas, where 65.1% of households cannot afford the basic food basket. Inequality, especially in rural areas, has worsened, as indicated by the rise in the Gini coefficient from 0.434 in 2015 to 0.444 in 2022⁴. Furthermore, concerning Human Rights, as highlighted in the last Universal Periodic Review for the country⁵, the Government policy of turning export-oriented large-scale commercial agriculture into the driving engine of the economy, with weak land protection and a dual structure of property rights, could push small farmers out of production, having a severe impact on their right to food."}, {"bbox": [96, 847, 1136, 1050], "category": "Text", "text": "Zambia has formulated the Eight National Development Plan (8NDP) for the years 2022-2026, focusing on economic growth and job creation, targeting increased trade, private investment, and sectoral diversification in agriculture, mining, tourism, and manufacturing. It integrates strategic support for energy, transport, and water, aligning with Vision 2030's development objectives. Under the IMF-Extended Credit Facility (ECF), the Government has managed to increase and safeguard essential social spending, worked towards preserving financial stability, and intensifying structural and governance reforms to unlock Zambia's growth potential."}, {"bbox": [96, 1078, 752, 1107], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Gender Equality, Women, Youth and People with Disabilities"}, {"bbox": [96, 1107, 1136, 1253], "category": "Text", "text": "Gender equality and women's empowerment in Zambia face significant challenges, with the country ranking 137th out of 193 on the Gender Inequality Index⁶. Sociocultural norms in the patriarchal society restrict women's empowerment, despite Vision 2030's goals to eliminate gender inequalities and the 8NDP (2022-2026) incorporating gender as a key objective, especially in human and social development. Zambia's gender inequality issues include low female representation and education levels⁷, high gender-"}, {"bbox": [85, 1438, 924, 1463], "category": "Footnote", "text": "² The exchange rate reached an all-time low in February 2024, climbing above 27 ZMW to the USD."}, {"bbox": [85, 1463, 834, 1487], "category": "Footnote", "text": "³ Inflation has been increasing steadily from 9.8% in June 2023 to 12.3% in January 2024."}, {"bbox": [85, 1487, 405, 1511], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁴ 2022 Poverty Assessment in Zambia"}, {"bbox": [85, 1511, 313, 1533], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁵ A/HRC/WG.6/42/ZMB/2"}, {"bbox": [85, 1534, 1144, 1625], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁶ Zambia has a higher gender inequality than the average in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region and other medium human development countries. The Gender Inequality Index (GII) value for 2022 was 0.526, ranking it 137 out of 193 countries. United Nations Development Program (UNDP). 2024. Human Development Report 2023/2024. Breaking the gridlock. Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world. New York, 293 p. Available at: https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/global-report-document/hdr2023-24reporten.pdf."}, {"bbox": [85, 1625, 759, 1647], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ Human Development Index report 2023-2024 United Nations Development Programme."}, {"bbox": [1037, 1681, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 32"}]