April 2006 Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket: At the Launch of “Pastoral Circle Revised,” JCTR Urges for Stronger Local Level Engagement in Zambia's Development

The JCTR monthly Basic Needs Basket that measures cost of living for a family of six (covering Livingstone, Kabwe, Ndola, Kitwe and Luanshya and now being expanded to rural areas) is as a matter of fact a derivative of the framework offered by the “Pastoral Circle, “ what the book being launched is all about. It is founded on the idea that to concretely monitor people’s living conditions and performance of development programmes or policies, we must be able to see what is truly happening in people’s daily living experiences. This means looking at conditions of housing, health, education, food security, cost of living, gender relations, etc. The JCTR strongly believes that affordability of basic needs or lack thereof determines in various dimensions households or people’s welfare.The JCTR says this in light of a book it is launching on 05 April 2006 entitled, The Pastoral CircleRevisited. This book provides important insights into not only understanding social analysis as abroad topic but how we can engage ourselves in different communities into effective and relevantsocial or situational analysis within our local contexts. But the book is even more persuasive as an avenue for the effective empowerment of the people including local structures from the point of view of active engagement in policy dialogue. But it is also more persuasive in promoting quality engagement that truly reflects ownership of the process as well as people’s needs. It is the position of the JCTR that such a contribution will make the decentralisation policy that government is earnestly pursuing a lived reality in Zambia, true devolution of power to the Zambian people in terms of budgeting, policy formulations, priority setting, etc. The book is therefore useful to Zambia at various levels ranging from both central and local government to local groups of churches, women, the youth and others involved one way or the other in promoting people’s welfare.Irish Aid and Joint Country Programm