Historical Trajectories of Social Policy in Post-Colonial Africa: The Case of Zambia

Abstract

As Zambia enters the twenty-first century, it finds social protection, economic development and democracy elusive after about seventy years of colonial rule and about forty years of independent rule. And this in spite of being endowed with a rich mineral resource that had been exploited for more than a century, and in spite of the honourable social and economic development intentions of various governments since the colonial period to the present. This chapter attempts to explore how social policy has evolved in Zambia with the aim of identifying the constraints that have militated against the attainment of its goals to protect and advance the welfare of vulnerable groups in particular, and that of the populace in general.