Clean Money Elections Project

Objectives: Enhanced accountability for transparency and gender equality of political finance to voters in Zambia.

Political

Zambia’s political setting remains vulnerable, with an underlying economic and societal discord as political and economic power remains in the hands of the elite. This, to a great extent, does not promote an inclusive and effectively participatory political system that can advance and sustain the long-term prosperity and stability of Zambia.

The constitutional reform process continues to be an issue of interest as stakeholders continue to challenge government to clarify the roadmap and process for constitutional reform. Further, although some progress has been made regarding fiscal decentralisation, little progress was identified regarding devolution of power.

Socio-economic

Over the past decade, Zambia has experienced several developmental and economic challenges, which negatively affected macroeconomic stability. Recently, Zambia has experienced an increased cost of living and increased inflation, exacerbated also by the recent cholera outbreak and the ongoing drought, and the ensuing food and energy crisis. All this have put increased burden on households, both rural and urban.

Civil society engagement

The existing platforms of civic engagement are limited and as such, they have caused the creation of dominant version of democracy. Through its work, TI-Z has observed the weaknesses in the existing platforms of civic engagement in the national governance of Zambia. Civic engagement platforms are politically inclined and manipulated. Equally, there are inadequate feedback mechanisms and actors are perceived to depend on donor funding for their functionality. In addition, some of the existing platforms have defunct civic engagement among citizens as well as a lack of fully flagged national budgetary allocation to support civic engagement.

As a result of the shrinking civic space, of the unfavorable legislative and regulatory measures, and of the limited political will on political party and campaign financing regulation, there are huge corruption risks which might affect the upcoming electoral process that will take place in 2026, and in turn the future of the country. Allowing corrupt elections means further exacerbating the instability of the country and the socio-economic situation of households, all of which are already precarious.

The existing platforms of civic engagement are limited and as such, they have caused the creation of dominant version of democracy. Through its work, TI-Z has observed the weaknesses in the existing platforms of civic engagement in the national governance of Zambia. Civic engagement platforms are politically inclined and manipulated. Equally, there are inadequate feedback mechanisms and actors are perceived to depend on donor funding for their functionality. In addition, some of the existing platforms have defunct civic engagement among citizens as well as a lack of fully flagged national budgetary allocation to support civic engagement.

As a result of the shrinking civic space, of the unfavorable legislative and regulatory measures, and of the limited political will on political party and campaign financing regulation, there are huge corruption risks which might affect the upcoming electoral process that will take place in 2026, and in turn the future of the country. Allowing corrupt elections means further exacerbating the instability of the country and the socio-economic situation of households, all of which are already precarious.

The project will leverage the relatively positive political will so far to continue advocating for the expansion of civic spaces, legal reforms, and general promotion and strengthening of political governance.  TI-Z will advocate through various platforms to reform the laws that impede active civic engagement in the national governance of Zambia as active civic engagement may cultivate positive change in the community.

Our activities include:

1. Developing a monitoring tool for campaign expenditures: we intend to work with targeting actors (civil society groups and oversight agencies) to deploy gender-sensitive political finance monitoring and implementation solutions. To be precise, we are working on a gender-sensitive tool for civic monitoring of election campaign expenditures by political parties, candidates and state for civil society organisations. The platform, which is being developed thanks to cross-national exchanges with TI colleagues from other regions, aims to provide users with a powerful instrument to monitor and access all information concerning campaign financing through various browsers and devices, all while providing a dynamic, interactive, and engaging experience.
2. Sensitizing the public: We will be working on a national assessment on legal and in-practice flaws that hinder transparency of and women’s access to political financing. Based on the results of this study, we will launch some public information campaigns to sensitize people on the nexus between (lack of) political finance transparency- political and election integrity-financial barriers faced by women politicians.
3. Other activities will concern providing technical advice (policy briefs, fact sheets, recommendations) for legislation and rule drafting to parliamentary committees, individual MPs, parliamentary service and/or oversight agencies; and organizing peer-to-peer cross-national exchanges between lawmakers, oversight agencies and election monitoring groups on political finance transparency and gender equality.

Finalization of the campaign monitoring tool

• Engage reform coalitions of civil society, politics, private sector, and election monitoring champions through joint media briefings, public events
• Provide technical advice (policy briefs, fact sheets, recommendations) for legislation and rule drafting to parliamentary committees, individual MPs, parliamentary service and/or oversight agencies
• Conduct (design, desk review, interview, analyse, consult, validate, publish) national assessments on the state of political finance governance and transparency practices, and financial barriers for women’s participation in politics.
• Design and deliver public communication actions (e.g. door-to-door sensitisation; roadshows; broadcast and print; discussions; media briefings)