While visiting the Embassy in Lusaka last week to hear about the work of Irish Aid in Zambia, the Irish Ambassador Tony Cotter proudly explained to me the long-established connection between Ireland and Zambia, which stretches back to the arrival of the Irish missionaries at the beginning of the last century.

“When I met the first President of the Republic, Kenneth Kaunda, for the first time, he made a special point of referring o the relationship between Zambia and Ireland,” says Cotter. “After Kaunda became president in 1964, he made sure that the first country that he visited was Ireland. This was in recognition of the support both he and the country received from Irish missionaries prior to independence.”

The Ambassador, like Kaunda, has the highest regard for the work of the Irish missionaries, and this respect has also been expressed by the many Zambian people I have met so far who have been educated by Irish priests and nuns. Many of Zambia’s hospitals throughout the 20th century were also run by Irish missionary sisters.

This missionary link between Ireland and Zambia greatly contributed to the decision to include Zambia on a list of priority countries when the Irish Government established a bilateral aid programme for Zambia in the late 1970s. Since then, Irish Aid has contributed to areas of education, healthcare, governance, poverty reduction, HIV/Aids, water and sanitation, gender equality, and the recent development of a social cash transfer scheme to support the country’s poorest families. A total of €25m was contributed in 2009.

Irish Aid’s role in the development of Zambia in these areas is one both of advocacy and financial support. They work in partnership with Civil Service Organisations (CSOs) at a local level, helping them to have their voices heard by government. They also work closely with the government to ensure that effective policies are introduced in accordance with the goals set out in Zambia’s Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) and Zambia’s Aid Policy and Strategy. According to Irish Aid’s Country Strategy Paper for Zambia, the FNDP has a “critical financing gap”, and the objectives can only be reached if assistance from donors like Irish Aid is scaled up.

Irish Aid recognises the need for increased government accountability in the country, and provides support to the Zambian Parliament, fifteen community radio stations and a number of NGOs in order to foster greater openness and transparency.

Irish Aid’s work in Zambia is concentrated in an area based programme in the Northern Province, an area twice the size of Ireland. “We work particularly with four districts in the Northern Province, helping to build the capacity of the districts and engage with the community at a local level, to draw up plans for development in each of these districts,” Cotter explains.

The primary focus for Irish Aid in Zambia is education, particularly for vulnerable children. Ireland and the Netherlands are joint heads of the donor group for education, and provides financial support to the budget of the Ministry for Education as well as working closely with local Civil Service Organisations to strengthen their advocacy voice.

“Currently there are 3.6m children enrolled in basic education, which amounts to 97 per cent of those of primary school age,” says Yvonne Chomba, Irish Aid’s Education Advisor. The number of people who had completed primary education on independence in 1964 was just 6%.

“Over the past three years, 5000 new teachers have been deployed to the sector every year, and an average of 2500 classrooms have been built. The government is making good progress, but the issue of quality needs to be addressed.”

Pupil-teacher ratios, teacher absenteeism, and a lack of adequate resources and materials are still a huge problem. Performance in the five core subjects is not improving, and Irish Aid are working in partnership with the Ministry to determine and address the reasons for this.

The authorities are also beginning to broaden the scope of the educational sector. Last week, President Banda announced that 9 vocational centres had been established around the country in the past 12 months. “Up to now, the focus has been on non-vocational, academic education, but there is an increasing recognition that there is huge potential in the vocational sector,” says Chomba. “There is a real lack of skilled workers in Zambia, like carpenters, plumbers, and electricians, and so the government are starting to shift their focus towards vocational education, and are trying to introduce a vocational component to education even at a basic school level.”

The halting and reversal of the spread of HIV and Aids is another key element of Irish Aid’s work in Zambia, and the protection of orphaned children is one of their primary concerns.

“Currently the statistics are telling us that there are over 1 million children who are affected in some way by HIV,” says Patricia Malasha, Irish Aid’s HIV/AIDS Advisor. “All of these children need support to ensure they have access to education, medical care and adequate nutrition.”

“ These children also need psycho-social support, which is really lacking at the moment. In the past we have relied on traditional system of the extended family to support orphaned children, but as a result of the challenges of HIV, this system is no longer adequate.”

“We are trying to work out how to incorporate traditional systems with our response to the HIV problem, and we are working with a number of community based organisations. But working with these CSOs is not enough, we realised we need to also work closely with the government to make sure that they put proper policies in place that are going to provide quality services at local level.”

The Zambian government introduced free Anti Retroviral Treatment for all those who needed it in 2006. At this time, an estimated 350,000 people were in need, but there was no administrative system in place to organise the treatment. Irish Aid were involved in the process of establishing a set of guidelines which encompasses both the public and private sectors, to ensure that treatment is accessible for those who need it.

“But we still have a lot of challenges,” says Malasha. “ Almost every province now has a centre to administer treatment, but now we need to look at providing treatment at a district level. The poverty levels in this country are very high, and infrastructure is a huge problem for people who need transport to treatment centres, especially in rural areas.”

Overall, the meeting was an interesting introduction to the projects and issues supported by Irish Aid in Zambia. I will be visiting a few of these projects which are working in the areas of education, healthcare, media, agriculture and social cash transfers in the Chipata area over the coming weeks to see the impact that they have on the ground.

“Ireland has made a significant contribution to the development of Zambia, and I do think that there is a particular regard for Ireland and the Irish people here,” were the Ambassador’s parting words. “I hope you will encounter this yourself during your time here.”