This paper assesses the impact that the Global Gag Rule has had on Zambia's reproductive health situation. The Global Gag Rule prohibits US assistance to foreign NGOs that use funding from any other source to fund abortions in cases other than exceptional.

Institutions dealing with corruption have failed to raise levels of accountability in Zambia, a Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) report has revealed. But Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) director of operations Bradford Malumbe has dismissed the report.

The corruption trial of Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba, which was due to open last Thursday, has been delayed because of technical objections posed by his lawyers. Chiluba's lawyer John Sangwa told the magistrate's court that the former president has not been furnished with adequate details of the case to enable him to develop his defence.

Protesting University of Zambia students this week disrupted a senate meeting convened to consider a 100 per cent hike in tuition fees. The students stormed the senate chamber when word went round that the university governing body was meeting to discuss the proposed increment for the 2004 academic year.

Efforts to encourage farmers in Zambia to adopt alternative farming methods have paid off, and small-scale farmers in some areas are reporting record productivity. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the bumper crops may be attributed to a steady move away from conventional tillage methods to conservation farming (CF).

The rise in the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Zambia has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to scale up its assistance programmes in some of the country's urban centres. WFP information officer Lena Savelli told IRIN on Monday that although food security in Zambia continued to improve, there was growing concern over the plight of vulnerable children, most of whom were left to support households after the death of a parent.

Today, corruption in Zambia is a disease of endemic socio-economic and political dimensions. It is a disease that threatens the fabric of sustainable livelihoods in the country and a disease that is sustained by inappropriate and maladaptive democratic linkages between the State and its citizenry, and narrow perceptions of corruption by individuals tasked with the management of the citizenry's common good.

Tuition centres have become the rage in Zambia. The centres offer what would appear to be dream schools. Small classes with individual attention from teachers, concentration on weak subjects and to top it all British accredited examinations: O level and A level.

On October 18 2003, journalists from both private and state-owned media were barred from reporting the deliberations underway in various committees of a government organised national convention (National Indaba) taking place in Lusaka, Zambia.

Like many aid workers and activists trying to improve the lives of women in developing countries, Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika has long viewed education as the key to solving many of her countrywomen's problems. But 30 years after gender equality began to be promoted in programs, those like Mbikusita-Lewanika, have learned that relieving the burdens of poor women is more complex than once thought.

Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba appeared in court on Monday to face charges he stole about $30-million (about R210-million) while in office - accusations that his lawyers said were part of a political smear campaign.

A free daily meal has been enough incentive to attract a steady increase of primary school children back into class in Zambia's Southern province. The pilot school-feeding programme, launched in July, now reaches 50 schools in five districts, providing a fortified micronutrient-rich porridge for 19,000 young children in the country's most drought-affected areas.

The Zambian government, under new President Levy Mwanawasa, is taking "urgent steps" to fight the nation's HIV/AIDS epidemic, after almost 20 years of "struggling against the disease with little effect," the New York Times reports. Health experts believe that Zambia - where nearly one in five adults is HIV-positive - has the sixth-worst AIDS epidemic in the world. According to a United Nations report, fewer than 1% of the estimated 200,000 or more HIV-positive people in Zambia who need antiretroviral medications has access to them.

UPND vice-president Sakwiba Sikota says the ranking of Zambia as an eleventh most corrupt country among the 133 other nations showed that the fight against corruption was failing to achieve the expected results. According to the 2003 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) last week, Zambia had maintained its rank as the eleventh most corrupt among 133 countries in the world.

When Lands Minister Judith Kapijimpanga announced recently that government had, with immediate effect, directed local authorities to intensify land allocation to women to empower them through ownership, there was a huge round of applause. But not everyone is optimistic. The Zambia National Land Alliance, an NGO reviewing the land policy, says all this is high sounding and right along the lines of affirmative action, but will be a long time coming.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia has begun voluntary repatriation of Angolan refugees from Mayukwayukwa refugee settlement in Kaoma District of Western Province. UNHCR Head of Sub-office Mongu Stanley Miseleni said in a statement that a total of 507 Angolan refugees would be repatriated to Cazombo district and its immediate vicinity.

Government has with immediate effect directed local authorities throughout the country to intensify land allocation to women to empower them through ownership. Lands Minister Judith Kapijimpanga also urged traditional rulers to encourage women to own land - of which 90 per cent was under utilised and was controlled by chiefs.

One of the areas that Zambia lags behind in is the provision of health services to people in rural areas. There are not enough hospitals, health centres or clinics to cover the population of the country. Even where these facilities are available, persistent problems of shortage of drugs, inadequate manpower and lack of transport continue to dog the institutions.

It's the poor that suffer when donors withhold funds, an economics professor has said. The flow of donor funds that were inevitable in the initial stages in most African countries until sustained growth generated larger domestic revenues, should not be dictated by conditionalities, he said.

Zambian Defence Minister Michael Mabenga has lost his job and been stripped of his parliamentary seat after the Supreme Court annulled his election victory. After the elections in December 2001, which brought current President Levy Mwanawasa to power, the opposition launched a series of legal challenges to the results of both the presidential and parliamentary polls.