Zambia

The work injury regulatory framework was enacted in Zambia before its 1964 independence. Legislation covering sickness and maternity and old age, disability and survivors came into law after independence. Zambia introduced a social assistance programme, the Public Welfare Assistance scheme, in 2000. The programme’s objective is to provide assistance to the most vulnerable population so that individuals can meet their basic needs and have capacity to overcome poverty and vulnerability. In 2015, the programme had 236,013 individual participants receiving a yearly transfer between US$2 and US$20. In 2003, another social assistance programme named the Social Cash Transfer Programme started with the aim of reducing extreme poverty and generating information on the feasibility, costs and benefits of a social cash transfer scheme as a component of a social protection strategy for Zambia. In 2018, 700,000 participants were benefiting from the programme. The bimonthly cash transfer ranged between US$2.50 and US$56.03 in 2012. Zambia has a unified registry and there is in place a national coordination agency responsible for coordinating government efforts and managing programmes. The social assistance spending was 0.03 percent of GDP in 2011, translating to spending of US$0.66 per poor person per year.