Zambia - Overview

Zambia has an extensive civil society, which includes a strong presence by church groups and trade unions as well development and human rights CSOs. Civil society’s challenges include limited capacity and networking and high dependency on external resources. Broader societal challenges include political polarisation, a lack of judicial independence and practices such as torture and unlawful killings by the police force. CSOs have however worked successfully to defend and uphold practices of multiparty democracy and the peaceful transition of power, and to bring the government back to the negotiating table over the highly restrictive 2009 NGO Act.