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The Zambia Prison Service faces critical challenges including severe overcrowding, chronic underfunding, and human rights abuses. While the service has implemented an Offender Management Programme and received some recent government investment in transport and uniforms, the prison population—largely composed of remandees—far exceeds capacity. The report highlights inhumane living conditions, inadequate nutrition, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. It recommends the construction of new facilities, the adoption of non-custodial sentencing, and the establishment of a prisons ombudsman to ensure accountability and respect for human rights.

The Zambian legal system is a dual structure comprising English common law and customary law. While the judiciary is formally independent, it faces severe resource constraints, infrastructure deficits, and a significant case backlog. The report highlights critical failures in juvenile justice, where children are often treated as adults and detained in violation of the Juvenile Act. Efforts to improve the system include donor-funded infrastructure and legal aid initiatives, though these are hampered by poor conditions of service and a lack of professional training for lower-court magistrates.

The document traces the MMD's transition from a civil society coalition to a dominant political party in Zambia. It analyzes the party's internal organization, its reliance on state resources for funding, and the impact of ethnic tensions and policy failures on its declining national support base.

The document examines the transition of Zambia's copper industry from state control under Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited (ZCCM) to private ownership. It argues that while privatisation increased production and corporate profits, it led to a decline in social services, poor labour conditions, and environmental degradation. The author highlights a 'resource curse' where the state's failure to negotiate fair development agreements and its tendency to protect foreign investors have left local communities with minimal benefits and increased insecurity.

The report examines the 'New Copperbelt' in Zambia's Northwestern Province, highlighting a significant gap between the country's strong formal mining laws and their practical implementation. While large-scale investments from companies like First Quantum Minerals and Barrick Gold drive economic growth, they have also caused heavy metal contamination in rivers and exacerbated social inequalities. The document finds that community engagement often lacks meaningful consent, and the benefits of mining are unevenly distributed, with women and girls facing disproportionate burdens including increased unpaid labour and gender-based violence.

The document is a country fact sheet for Zambia, providing basic data on its location, population, political system, and economic indicators. It lists Zambia's natural resources, including minerals and hydropower, and outlines its constitutional and legal framework based on common law.

The Zambia Prison Service faces critical challenges including severe overcrowding, chronic underfunding, and human rights abuses. While a legal framework exists based on the Constitution of Zambia and various international conventions, many instruments are not domesticated. Prisons are significantly over capacity, with a high proportion of inmates on remand due to judicial delays and corruption. Conditions are described as inhumane, with shortages of food, bedding, and medical care, alongside reports of torture and the improper detention of women and juveniles. The report recommends building new facilities, increasing funding, implementing non-custodial sentencing, and establishing a prisons ombudsman.

The document argues that while Zambia has a growing tradition of civil society activism, these organisations have largely ignored the military, leaving a void in the oversight of defence policy and budgeting. It highlights the historical context of coup attempts in 1990 and 1997 as evidence of weak civil-military relations and calls for a shift away from military secrecy toward transparency. The author suggests that civil society, parliament, and the executive must collaborate to define a democratic security doctrine, specifically targeting defence budgeting and policy formulation to prevent military intervention and ensure accountability for public funds.

The report assesses Zambia's stability, noting that while the country has avoided civil war, it faces structural threats from pervasive poverty, neopatrimonial governance, and an imbalance of power between the executive and other state branches. It highlights the risk of political entrepreneurs exploiting ethnic tensions and the potential for social unrest due to economic inequality and a stalled constitutional review process.

This policy brief examines the adaptation and integration of Chinese immigrants in Zambia, challenging the narrative of 'Chinese self-isolation' through survey data and comparative analysis. It argues that perceived isolation is often a result of workplace requirements rather than ethnocentricity and recommends that African governments and Chinese entities improve localization efforts.

The CHAPOSA project investigated charcoal production systems around Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, and Maputo between 1989 and 1998. Findings indicate a significant reduction in closed forest cover in all three areas, with the most severe depletion around Maputo. Charcoal serves as a critical income source for rural poor and a stable, affordable energy source for urban poor, creating a socio-economic dependency that complicates regulation. The report argues that current fiscal and licensing systems are inadequately enforced, treating forests as open-access resources. To mitigate deforestation, the authors recommend a coordinated approach: enforcing licensing to increase prices and fund forest management, while simultaneously providing rural income alternatives (e.g., improved agriculture) and urban energy substitutes (e.g., expanded electricity access).

The document describes a transdisciplinary workshop activity aimed at creating a "level playing field" of knowledge by clarifying often-misunderstood climate terms. It outlines a process where participants categorize statements to distinguish between weather, climate, adaptation, mitigation, disaster risk reduction, and development. The briefing highlights benefits such as increased receptivity to climate science and improved stakeholder ability to articulate information needs, illustrated by a case study in Windhoek, Namibia, where the activity supported the development of the city's first Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan.