The Economic and Business Research Program notes that Zambia has registered real growth in the gross domestic product of above 5 percent per annum over the last few years with annual inflation dipping into single digit figures. However, this has not translated into notable improvements in standards of living for the majority of Zambians. Human deprivations manifest in pervasive poverty, inequality and unemployment. Economic ills also manifest in high commercial bank lending rates, volatile exchange rates and a burgeoning national debt that threaten future macroeconomic stability. In response to these national development challenges, Zambia has formulated Vision 2030 of becoming “a prosperous middle - income country”. The vision is operationalized through five-year rolling development plans. Currently, the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP, 2017-2021) is underway. The theme of the 7NDP is “accelerating development efforts towards Vision 2030 without leaving anyone behind. Achieving the country’s Vision 2030 of “a prosperous middle - income country” and the 7NDP’s theme of “accelerating development efforts towards Vision 2030 without leaving anyone behind” needs to rest on a concrete analysis and evidence of policies for equitable and sustainable development. Such evidence can only be obtained from thorough research in the main areas of development and of economic development policies that generates a critical understanding of the various factors that influence development outcomes. The Economic and Business Research Programme (EBRP) responds to this felt need and undertakes research that responds to various contemporary economic development questions.
Priority Areas
In the next five years the main focus of the EBRP will be on research around optimal short-run macro and microeconomic management and around longer-run issues and policies of sustainable and equitable human development. Priority areas will include:
- Macroeconomics;
- Sector studies (e.g. mining, construction, manufacturing, small-scale industry; banking, trade and finance);
- Competitiveness analysis, including the role of innovations, technology, education and skills development;
- Marketing research;
- Labour, employment and the future of work in a digitalized economy;
- Regional cooperation and integration;
- Sustainable growth and human development;
- International trade, finance and development;
- Social protection and poverty reduction;
- Inequality, income distribution and socio-political forces in economic analysis;
- Environmental and natural resource management;
- Institutional factors, regulatory frameworks and behavior of socio-economic groups; and
- Results-based policy monitoring and evaluation, and economic issue-based opinion polls.
The programme will also expand and roll out its capacity building for policy and programming through executive and academic courses in monitoring and evaluation, research methodology and operations research, data analysis, and public policy analysis. The EBRP will also explore future training provisioning for research-oriented post-graduate programmes within the ambit of the Institute’s research expertise.
