Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

In order to share NIMD’s experiences in Zambia and to discuss these with other organisations involved in programmes in Zambia a lunch meeting was organised on 23 June 2009. The meeting was attended by Cordaid, ISS, Woord en Daad, Plan Nederland and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Martin van Vliet (political advisor to the Christian Democratic Appeal, involved in the NIMD’s Zambia programme and a PhD-candidate preparing a dissertation on constitutional reform) introduced the subject by summarising the history of the constitutional reform process in Zambia. This process has gone through various phases but none of the efforts has produced a satisfactory result. A key element in the process has been the dominant position of the executive, especially the presidency, in manipulating the outcome. Democracy has gained little from the efforts towards constitutional reform and autocratic tendencies have persisted. Various president have used the Inquiry Act in inappropriate manners. Despite its important implications for the daily life of millions of Zambians ordinary citizens have not shown a lot of interest in the role of the constitution. Van Vliet outlined the positions taken by civil society, and by parties in government and in the opposition.

Roel von Meijenfeldt stressed the important role by the NIMD-supported Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue. ZCID facilitated the institutional dialogue between the Zambian political parties. He added that the time of the reform process seemed to be ideal, at the start of the second term of the Mwanawasa presidency. However, the passing away of Mwanawasa in 2008 delayed important elements of the process. Apart from the dialogue between political actors ZCID also played a role in the crucial dialogue between political society and civil society.

Zambian expert Simon Kabanda, of the NGO Citizens Forum, pointed to the importance of the timeframe. A very important element at the en of the constitutional reform process is the referendum in which the general population can express whether they are in agreement with the new version or whether they are opposed.

According to the Dutch donor organisations that attended the lunch lecture their partners, apart from two church-related organisations, have so far shown little involvement in this process. By contrast, the Netherlands embassy in Lusaka has played a constructive role, probably in the awareness of the close link between constitutional reform and accountability.

As the next general elections are approaching the constitutional reform process runs the risk of become part of the political game. It is has to predict what impact this will have on the way in which the process will be develop in the coming months.

During the meeting the new NIMD-booklet on constitutional reform processes (entitled ‘Writing Autobiographies of Nations) was presented.