Report on the Jubilee Zambia Debt Campaign Opinion poll

This is a report on the opinion poll, which was conducted late December 2001 and early January 2002 in seven districts of Zambia. The opinion poll was supervised by M and N Associates Limited on behalf of the Jubilee Zambia Movement. Jubilee Zambia is part of the CCJP/JCTR Debt project with a specific focus on Zambia’s debt problem. It started in 1998 as part of the worldwide movement to lobby the creditor countries and the international financial Institutions to cancel the un-payable debts of impoverished countries of the world by the year 2001.The main goal of the campaign is to achieve effective and equitable debt cancellation that results in poverty reduction.The World Bank and the IMF launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative of debt reduction in 1997 in an attempt to address the debt problems of severely indebted low-income countries. As of January 2002, Zambia’s total foreign debt stock stands at US$5.8 billion dropping from US$6.5 billion, due to debt cancellation and relief. This paper seeks to generate information on public perception and knowledge on debt problem that will aid Jubilee Zambia plan its work and have a better understanding on the cancel the debt campaign. The survey employed a quota sampling methodology with quotas set between males and females. Face to face interviews were conducted in Lusaka, Chongwe, Kafue, Kabwe, Livingstone, Mongu and Ndola. A total of 1626 people were interviewed and from these, 52% were male and 48% female. The majority of the respondents (60%) reported that they have heard about the Jubilee ‘Cancel the debt’ campaign while 40% said they did not. The majority (67%) think that Zambia should not continue paying its debt. The majority of respondents (66%) are not aware that the HIPC resources have started coming to Zambia. Most of the respondents (49%) think that HIPC resources will never reach the poor people in Zambia. The most of the respondents (47%) want the church and NGO to monitor HIPC resources. The survey revealed that many people support the concern on the lack of transparency and accountability in the use of HIPC resources across the country. For the reparation campaign to be enhanced, citizens especially women and young people need to be provided with information related to the origin of Zambia’s external Debt