Activities in 2011

1. Parliament and Political Parties

1.1 Parliament

FES collaborates with the administration of the National Assembly of Zambia to strengthen capacity and public relations of Parliament. It also offers fora to the members on national issues, which try to foster the dialogue between Parliament, Government and Civil Society.

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
Workshop with Parliamentarians:2012 Budget	NASS/CARITAS/CSPR/JCTR	Lusaka,November
Production of Radio programmes for parliament radio	NASS	April - July

1.2 Political Parties and Young Politicians

FES thinks that Political Parties can effectively fulfill their tasks for democracy only if they are stable, without defections and politicians changing sides. This also means they have to become recognizable and oriented towards policy programs and towards membership and internal democracy. We are working on a training program for party officials to work towards these aims. In collaboration with cross-party youth organisations we offer civic education for young politicians and the outreach of these organisations to rural areas. We also work with Youth organizations in an effort to enhance their participation in issues affecting them through Youth Parliaments. These youth Parliaments bring together youths from different parts of Zambia to discuss issues affecting them.

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
Seminar on the Barotseland agreement	CPD	Lusaka, February
Discussion forums on important political questions in Zambia	CPD	Lusaka,March-September
Seminar on election procedures and suffrage: voter registration and mobilisation	CPD	Lusaka, June
National Conference: National Youth Parliament	NYCA	Chipata, May
Three Seminars for young Politicians “creating space for young people in the political party arena	AVAP	Livingstone,Mongu,Solwezi February - April
Publication: "Youth in development Newsletter of the YCCC"	YCCC	Lusaka, June-August

 

1.3 Patriotic Front / Civil Society Dialogue

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
PF/CSO Promoting Democracy and Good Governance in Zambia	PF / Civil Socity	Lusaka, April

2. Civil Society

2.1 Capacity Building for Trade Unions

ZCTU has been a long time partner of FES. Our relationship with the trade unions is based in the roots of our own organisation. We believe that trade unions in Zambia are the only organisations who, with their broad membership, are rooted in the local poor communities, while at the same time they have capacities and influence on the national policy level. They are real civil society in the sense that they translate the needs of the people into policy advocacy.

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
Seminar: Analysis of the National Budget :Post and Pre-Budget workshops	ZCTU	Lusaka 7 February,July
Human Resource training for four union officials	ZCTU/Mulungushi University	Kabwe June-December
Strategic Planning Seminar	MUZ	Kitwe, 19-20 October
National Seminar: negotiating skills for Negotiators	NUPAW	Lusaka,5-6 September
National Seminar with Shoprite Shop Stewards Council	NUCIWZ	Lusaka, April

2.2 Civil Society, Poverty Reduction, Development and Trade

With various organisations of the Civil Society FES has specific programs to address certain governance, development and trade issues. These issues include fight against corruption, gender in development, participation of Civil Society in decision-making in international development co-operation and trade.

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
Seminar on Social Security	MLSS	Lusaka, August
Seminar on the 2009 Auditor General's report	CSPR	Lusaka, June

3. Regional and International

3.1 Media

FES supports the freedom of the media as a precondition for an open and democratic society. We do that in a regional framework with the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and its chapters as partners. A focus in the Southern African Region is the independence of broadcasting and the various regulatory systems which are supposed to grant this. In Zambia the introduction of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the transformation of ZNBC from a government mouthpiece to a public broadcaster, and Media Law Reforms are the developments we support.

                

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
Africa Media Barometer 2011	MISA	22-24 July, Chisamba

3.2 Regional Integration and Collaboration

Regional Integration and Collaboration in the political, economic and social field are also very important for the national development of Zambia.FES Lusaka is part of the network of our projects on Regional Integration and collaboration in Africa.

Activity and Topic	Partner	Place and Time
Regional Trade Union Seminar	TUAC	Lusaka, November

3.3 Globalization

Globalization is not only a political, economic and social phenomena which affects all countries in the world and has caused many distortions but has also initiated a paradigmatic shift and a more intensified collaboration between political and social actors worldwide to find solutions to similar problems. FES Lusaka also takes part in the worldwide globalization programmes of the FES and shows that Zambia is part of this process.