Zambia

Since 1970, the share of the education sector in the national budget as a percentage of the gross national product has been on the decline. The percentage of total public budget spent on education varied between 7 to 13.4 percent, compared to 20 to 25 percent in other neighboring countries, while expenditure on primary education averaged about 2.5 percent of the GNP compared to 8-10 percent in neighboring countries and 5 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank 1998). Declining public finance of education underlies much of the Ministry's inability to meet its obligations of providing the necessary facilities to ensure universal availability of quality education. The major reasons for the decrease in government expenditure on education has been identified to include poor economic development, structural adjustment requirements, and increasing debt servicing requirements (Saluseki, 2000). Expenditure on advanced-level education has increased from 1970 to 1998, while primary and secondary education budgets actually experienced decreases, from 44 to 42 percent of the government's expenditure on education in the case of preprimary and primary education and 30 to 19 percent in the case of secondary. Under BESSIP, the requirements for counterpart funding, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, is geared toward reducing this inequality in resource allocation within the education sector. Zambia is also benefiting from a comprehensive debt reduction package under the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The enhanced HIPC Initiative will help Zambia to advance its poverty reduction programs and stimulate economic growth; this can help in generating resources that can be channeled to the education sector. Compared to projected debt service obligations without HIPC assistance, Zambia's annual payments will be reduced by US$260 million from 2001 to 2005 and roughly US$130 million from 2006 to 2015 (World Bank 2000). This corresponds to a reduction in debt service obligations of 45 percent.