Zambia: Condemned to debt

Zambia was once one of the wealthiest countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet after the oil crisis and commodity price collapse of the early 1970s, it was forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for assistance. So began some thirty years of Bank and Fund intervention in the Zambian economy, a period of increasing debt, economic stagnation or collapse, and social crisis. From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, Zambia's total external debt rose from US$814 million to US$6,916 million. And yet, by 2003, Zambia had received only 5 per cent of the debt service reduction committed to it under HIPC. A forthcoming World Development Movement report on Zambia clearly demonstrates that the IMF and World Bank's involvement in Zambia has been unsuccessful, undemocratic and unfair. The evidence suggests that the past twenty years of IMF and World Bank intervention have exacerbated rather than ameliorated Zambia's debt crisis.