Tourism and Poverty Reduction in the Context of PRSP in Zambia

By

Crispin Matenga

University of Zambia

Presentation for the Conference on

“Political Dimensions of Poverty Reduction –The Case of Zambia”

The setting

Tourism has potential to contribute to:• Improved economic growth

-Contribution to GDP (2%)• Economic diversification

-Away from copper dependence• Socio-economic development

-Employment;income generation;rural dev.

Research Questions/Methods

• Research Questions

-How pro-poor are the PRSP programmes in tourism?Have the suggested programmes changed the distribution of benefitsin favour of the poor?

• Research Methods

-Interviews;FGDs: Literature review

Policies of Poverty Reduction

• Two main development strategies in PRSP:

1. Priority zones – five zones identified2. National Programmes – implemented at

national level• Programmes include: investment

promotion;marketing;infrastructure;TDCF;Capacity building;tourism database

Politics of Poverty Reduction

• Institutions involved: Govt; Private sector; donors; local communities

• Strategies biased towards:

-sector contribution to GDP

-Private sector (largely foreign) investment

• Thus, poverty reduction objective in the short to short term is lost

Politics of Poverty Reduction

• TDCF Implementation

-Non-adherence to implementation guidelines

-Programme implementation slow

-Lack of transparency

-Political interference

-Lack of information by communities

Conclusions

• Little progress in implementation of programmes

• Inconsistencies in allocation of funds• Programmes aimed at sector expansion but

not tilt the sector in favour of the poor• Potential for poverty reduction exists -BUT

need for deliberate and conscious effort to redistribute benefits to the poor