ZGF Calls for Community Ownership to Sustain Zambia's Development

By Alain Kabinda

As Zambia moves closer to another election cycle and national conversations intensify around development, governance, and public resource allocation, one civil society Zambia Governance Foundation is urging the country to look beyond projects and political promises toward a more sustainable model of community ownership.

Speaking to members of the media in Lusaka, the Zambian Governance Foundation (ZGF) Chief Executive Officer Ms. Engwase Banda Mwale called for greater investment in community-led development systems, arguing that long-term progress depends not only on funding but also on strong local institutions capable of sustaining development long after projects and political terms have ended.

           ( Ms Engwase Banda Mwale)

Ms.  Mwale noted that Zambia has made important strides in recent years through initiatives such as the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), decentralization reforms, infrastructure expansion, and youth empowerment programmes. These efforts have brought development resources closer to local communities and increased opportunities for citizen participation.

However, ZGF cautioned that decentralising resources alone is not enough.

"Too often, communities experience development as something delivered to them rather than something they actively shape, design, and sustain," Ms. Mwale observed, also highlighting what it described as a growing paradox in Zambia's development landscape.

According to Ms. Mwale, while more resources are reaching communities than ever before, challenges remain in ensuring sustainability, local ownership, accountability, and active citizen participation. As a result, many developments gains risk becoming dependent on funding cycles or political transitions rather than being embedded within community structures.

For the past 17 years, ZGF has been promoting approaches centered on Community Foundations and local philanthropy. The organisation believes these models provide a practical pathway for communities to organize local resources, manage assets, and support development priorities based on local needs.

Over the last four years, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, ZGF has worked with Community Foundations and community-led development structures in Chibombo, Serenje, and Chongwe districts. The experience, ZGF says, has reinforced a critical lesson: development cannot be sustained through projects alone.

"Projects are temporary by design. Institutions are permanent by intention," Ms. Mwale stated, emphasizing the need to build durable community institutions that can continue driving development beyond individual interventions.

Ms. Mwale also highlighted the largely untapped potential of local philanthropy. Across Zambia, communities already practice various forms of mutual support through savings groups, church contributions, cooperatives, and informal social networks. What remains missing, according to ZGF, is the institutional framework needed to coordinate and amplify these efforts into long-term development outcomes.

Community Foundations, Ms. Mwale argues, can fill this gap by creating transparent mechanisms through which individuals, businesses, diaspora communities, and other stakeholders can contribute resources toward locally determined priorities.

As political parties begin presenting competing visions ahead of the next general election, Ms. Mwale has warned against viewing development solely through an electoral lens. While election campaigns often focus on immediate needs and visible achievements, many of the country's most pressing challenges—including education, healthcare, livelihoods, climate resilience, and youth opportunities—require sustained effort over many years.

And speaking at the same media engagement Civi Society Organisation Development Manager Ms. Racheal Mwila said that the Foundation believes that development is most resilient when communities themselves are actively involved in planning, implementing, and overseeing initiatives.

Ms. Mwila added that ZGF envisions an integrated development ecosystem in which government, civil society, the private sector, and communities each play complementary roles. In this model, government provides public financing, civil society offers technical support, businesses contribute investment and corporate social responsibility initiatives, while communities participate through local mobilisation, oversight, and ownership.

Ms. Mwila further revealed plans to explore urban Community Foundation models in Lusaka, Livingstone, and the Copperbelt, where opportunities exist to mobilise corporate giving, diaspora contributions, and local philanthropy to support community priorities.

At the heart of ZGF's message is a simple but powerful principle: sustainable development is not something done for communities; it is something built with them and ultimately owned by them.

As Zambia prepares for another important electoral season, the Foundation's call serves as a reminder that while governments, policies, and projects may change over time, communities remain. And when equipped with strong institutions, trusted systems, and opportunities for participation, they become the true custodians of lasting development.

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