Establishment of new districts in Zambia- “An opportunity for visionary, Innovative, and creative leadership”

Abstract

In this paper lets us examine and reflect on issues relating to creation of districts. In recent years many countries across the world, especially in Africa, have created large numbers of new local administrative units. To examine this phenomenon, I take the case study of Zambia, one of the more prominent country in creation of districts in recent years. Alongside large-scale economic and political dispensation, Zambia has also experienced a near explosion in the number of districts (the highest level of local government), from until 2013, Zambia was subdivided into 72 districts. However, since 2010 a number of new districts have been created bringing the total to 117 as of 2018 in less than a decade.

I examine a variety of potential reasons or decision why these districts might have been created, to de-linking, aligning and re-aligning of districts and argue, through the use Republican Constitution of Zambia and the National Decentralization Policy. Why it provides an “An opportunity for visionary, Innovative, and creative leadership” and also taking into consideration some challenges in the process. I conclude with reflections on the relationship between decentralization and economic development as well as political will in the development. This paper does not claim to be the definitive guide to all things “establishment of new districts in Zambia- “An opportunity for visionary, Innovative, and creative leadership” but rather to present some of the most significant approaches and discussions in creation of new districts.