Five media bodies have resolved to go to court to seek judicial interpretation over the appointments of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) boards, reports the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa). The chairperson of Misa's Zambian branch, Kellys Kaunda, disclosed that the five organisations are now seeking the court’s guidance on the two acts governing the appointment of board members of the two institutions.

Zambian NGOs will continue to track the use of funds saved under the Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, despite the government's suspension of an independent monitoring team. Before its suspension last month, the HIPC Tracking and Monitoring Team, established by the ministry of finance in 2001, identified several alleged cases of abuse of funds involving top civil servants. The team's last report, released in February this year, dealt with investigations into disbursements made in the Copperbelt and Northern provinces, and claimed that thousands of [US] dollars of HIPC funds had been spent on fuel, festivals and political celebrations.

The Zambian government must prove its political commitment to gender equality by implementing recommendations of the national gender policy, writes gender activist Wilcliff Sakala. "This challenge is an indication of the displeasure that women in this Southern African nation still feel at being discriminated against in many key areas of national decision-making. In Zambia, women make up nearly 52 per cent of the country’s 10 million people, but their role is negligible when it comes to determining affairs of the state. There are only two women in a Cabinet of 25 ministers and just 16 of 158 members of parliament are women."

Police in Zambia have questioned former Zambian president, Frederick Chiluba, over further allegations of corruption. Mr Chiluba's lawyer said he was likely to face new charges that he used state funds to buy two houses which he later sold to pay legal bills. The former head of state already faces charges of stealing tens of millions of dollars of public money.

Organisation Development and Community Management Trust (ODCMT) is a local NGO registered in March 2000 to provide assistance building the capacity of civil society to enhance their missions. The organisation undertakes popular campaign activities on poverty and trade issues, offers short-term development skills training courses and provides information and advisory services to leaders and members of civil society. In the last four years the organisation has managed to build and consolidate its capacity to gain a reputation as an alternative training resource institution to universities and colleges in the provision of practical skills training services to development practitioners.

Only 6,000 people out of an estimated population of 800,000 Zambians living with HIV/AIDS have been availed with the anti-retroviral (ARV's) drugs since last year. Health Minister Brian Chituwo said this in Lusaka when he received a consignment of ARV's worth K55 million donated by the Indian government.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has called for more commitment to the provision of an enabling environment for quality education. UNICEF country representative, Stella Goings, said in an interview that the nation should do more to enable children to acquire quality education. Dr Goings said UNICEF was recognisant that the Zambian Government was doing a lot with scarce resources to make sure that the children got the best education. She said UNICEF was committed to helping the government realise that dream, but called for more dedication from the government to make sure that Zambia produced educated leaders and professionals.

Panos is a dynamic network of autonomous institutes developing and applying new thinking on the role of media and communication in development. The Panos AIDS programme has a history of producing cutting-edge analysis on key issues within the response to HIV/AIDS and is recognised as a pioneering organisation challenging existing strategies and approaches to fighting the epidemic. We are now looking for a director to provide vision and leadership to the programme. This is a new role. You will be responsible for establishing many of the structures within which you work and supporting the progressive scaling up of the programme's operations.

The Zambian governments’ reluctance to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) law is a sign that it is not committed to the concept of being probed by the public, says the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in a statement. MISA Zambia says the government may not reap the full benefits made under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative if it does not enact the FOI bill.

The media should assist in monitoring corruption and not leave the task to public prosecutors and law enforcement officers alone, chief Government spokesperson Mutale Nalumango has said. Mrs Nalumango said corruption did not respect national boundaries and as such the media had a crucial role to play in fighting the scourge which had deepened poverty around the globe.

Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has said the glaring failure revealed in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report on Zambia justifies the call for more investment in the social sector. Commenting on the contents of the MDG report that was released recently, CSPR assistant co-ordinator Gregory Chikwanka said the report's revelations heralded the need for the government to revisit the resource allocation procedures. The report states that of the 10 MDG targets, Zambia could probably achieve one while possessing the potential to achieve only six others.

How can countries support increasing numbers of vulnerable households? What can be done to reverse the trend towards increasing destitution? This report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation looks at three case studies (in northern Namibia, southern Zambia and around Lake Victoria in Uganda) which explored the relationships among HIV/AIDS, gender, agricultural production, food security and rural livelihoods. The case studies demonstrate that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has serious implications for rural agricultural production and household food security, gender concerns and the policy environment.

More than 1,000 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) nationals have fled into Zambia following fierce fighting by rebels in Dikulushi, 150 kilometres from Nchelenge district. Government has since sent defence personnel to screen them and asked the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to take care of the affected Congolese. Home Affairs Deputy Minister Kennedy Sakeni in an interview in Lusaka described the situation in Nchelenge as "not very serious."

One step forward, three steps backwards: that's how various AIDS activists, parents and teachers in Zambia are describing government's decision to ban the distribution of condoms in schools on the grounds that it promotes promiscuity. Walter Tapfumaneyi, HIV/AIDS Regional Programme Coordinator for PANOS - a non-governmental organisation - says the condoms simply afforded protection to those children who did choose to have sex.

Two teachers' unions have called on government to pay teachers their February and March salaries with immediate effect. In separate interviews, Primary Education Teachers' Union (PETUZ) general secretary Cosmas Mukuka and the Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) spokesperson Joel Kamoko urged the government not to take teachers' patriotism for granted.

The Zambian government in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched its first Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report in Lusaka. The report on the eight millennium goals revealed that Zambia is way behind target and will most likely fail to achieve any of the goals with the exception of Gender Equality and women empowerment.

Secretary to the Cabinet Leslie Mbula's honest admission that there's still corruption in government is highly welcome, says this editorial in Zambia's The Post newspaper. "We say this because the attitude - that is to say, the seriousness of purpose - of any institution is measured, basically, by the attitude it takes towards its own weaknesses and problems. When weaknesses or problems are acknowledged, they stand a better chance of being overcome or solved. There's need to take a forthright and serious attitude towards our country's problem of corruption," says the editorial.

Norwegian Nurses Association International (NNAI) Secretary Per Godtland Kristensen has described as unethical the practice whereby rich countries rob poor nations of nurses through mass recruitment. Speaking at a joint Press briefing for NNAI, Zambia Nurses Association (ZNA) and International Council of Nurses (ICN) in Lusaka, Mr Kristensen said rich nations must not be allowed to recruit nurses from developing countries en-masse.

On February 20, 2003 two reporters working for Radio Lyambai, a community radio station in Mongu, 581 kilometers west of the capital, Lusaka, were detained by police for about four hours for allegedly inciting people in a local township to riot.

Bessie, 11, and her sister, Dorcas, 8, (not real names) are orphans. Until a few months ago, they lived with relatives in the heart of Lusaka. But instead of care and guardianship, the two sisters were repeatedly defiled. Unable to bear the acts of sexual violation, Dorcas spoke about their ordeal to a neighbour who, in turn, reported the matter to the police. Today, Dorcas and Bessie are in the care of a local orphanage, but sadly, the effects of their defilement still live with them.