Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, announced the resumption of budget support for Zambia and launched three programmes worth €110 million under Global Gateway. The announcement was made alongside President Hakainde Hichilema and Minister of Finance and National Planning Situmbeko Musokotwane.

The three programmes focus on improving Zambia’s education and health systems, increasing green energy and enhancing food security.

Commissioner Urpilainen and Minister Musokotwane also announced the intention of the EU and Zambia to launch negotiations for a Memorandum of Understanding on a strategic partnership on sustainable critical raw materials value chains.

Commissioner Urpilainen is accompanied in this visit by four members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development: Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, György Hölvényi, Udo Bullmann and Carlos Zorrinho. It is the first joint Team Europe mission of this kind.

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The three EU programmes worth €110 million focus on:

Health and Education: The EU’s new €60 million budget support allocation to Zambia comes on top of the initial €299 million cooperation budget in Multiannual Indicative Programming (2021-2024). The new grant marks the resumption of budget support for Zambia, and it will be used to improve education and health sectors in particular. It will enhance access to inclusive and quality education on primary and secondary levels. It will help Zambia address barriers to public health and boost the pharmaceutical sector development.

Green Energy: the EU will make an additional investment of €30 million in the rehabilitation of the Kariba Dam, a key infrastructure providing clean energy to both Zambia and Zimbabwe. It represents one third of Zambia’s and half of Zimbabwe’s power generation capacity. Previously, the EU has made a €83.5 million financial commitment for the Kariba Dam rehabilitation project. Today’s new allocation will help finance the cost of additional works that were identified during the first phase of the project. The project is expected to conclude next year.

Food Security: The EU is contributing an additional €20 million to support smallholder farmers in Zambia. This support is part of the EU’s response to the food security crisis and economic shock aggravated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. New funding complements the €12.4 million already mobilised to assists 60,000 small-scale farmers in increasing small farmers’ productivity and support to women working in the sector.