By Allan Mkandawire –

The country’s economic development is a responsibility of every member of the public. Participatory development process brings together people of difference profession, tribes, and values from different societies to work together for the development of the country.
Therefore participatory planning and development process requires unity among all citizens.
This also means that there is no development without peace and national unity. For there can be no working together in a community without national unity.
Therefore the achievement of sustainable development of the country requires national unity and contribution of every member of a community.Sometimes we like finding fault in the government for lack of development in our areas.
We always ask question such as “what has the government done for us?” But the question we should always ask is “what have we done for ourselves?” before we start asking about what the government has done for us.
The government has come up with many programmes and policies in trying to involve everyone in the development and decision making process. This has been due to the realisation by the government that effective development requires the participation of the affected local people.
In line with this principle many policies such as the decentralisation policy and many community development organisations have been created. he government has also removed total control from economic activities by privatising many sectors of economic development. This is aimed at promoting community participation in the development programmes and decision making rocess in all sectors of economic development.
However, despite the need and emphasis on the involvement of local people in development programmes, there has been low turnout from members of community. The community has shown little interest and willingness to participate in various developmental projects. This has been as result of social, political, religion and financial barriers in our country.
Political division
This has its roots from coronial rule era when most Zambians were not incorporated in the development and decision making process by the government.
They were completely left out and this took away their interest and willingness to participate in development process. Economic development of the country was regarded as a preserve of the government alone. This was as result of discrimination against black people by the coronial government.
However, today with discrimination against blacks non existing, the blam now lies on members of the community who tend to bar others based on political party membership.
Members from the ruling party usually don’t want to work with members of opposition even if they are neighbours belonging to one bigger community that is Zambia.
Equally, those from opposition parties’ don’t want to participate in any government development programmes even if the development is for their community. To make matters worse, some members from the opposition parties wish for the failure of government in development programmes because this is where their success in the next elections lies.
This has led to members of the public to show no appreciation to any government of the day in our country no matter how much is done by the government.
Some of us we even dislike the government when it is doing well just because we belong to the opposition party forgetting that the development is for our country and hence for everyone whether from the ruling or opposition political party.
This has resulted in lack of support for the government development programmes in communities hence making the development in these areas difficult for the government to implement.
The reason for this is the lack of understanding of politics by members of the public in our country. They do not understand the purpose of political debate by party leaders during the campaign period. They also do not understand the role of opposition parties in the development of the country.
To them, the hard and confrontation debate their political readers are engaged into during campaign time goes into their heart.
These political debates leave permanent hatred and division among supporters of different political parties.
They do not understand that these debates do not mean any hatred among their leaders but just a platform of sharing ideals.
This has led to situation where cadres fight each other every day even when the campaign and election period is over.
They say they do this for their political leaders but alas we see the opposite when their political leaders meet.
We see their readers hugging and smiling at each and share a cup of drink when they meet but their supporters are too much blindfolded with hatred to see this.
Religion division
Another factor that has been hindering public participation in development process in Zambia is religion. Though not common and strong however; religion division has also contributed to disunity among members of public.
This has made it difficult for the members of community to work together in the development programmes. Some members of community have avoided community-based development organisations especially those organisation which has some religion backgrounds.
People tend to share and work with each other in societies based on the religious membership. Some religions have discouraged their members to completely abscond from any activities of government.
This has caused their members to even shun development programme conducted by the government in their areas.
Therefore church bodies have a major role to play in promoting public participation in the development process by encouraging their members to work hard for their communities.
Social barriers
This is another factor which has hindered public participant in development programmes in Zambia.
Social barriers include tribe, region, cultural and economic status divisions in our communities.
Despite our first president coming up with the slogan of “One Zambia One Nation” our country still remains divided on tribe, region and cultural ground.
Even at high profession level this division has failed to be completely eliminated.
This can be seen from the reaction by government personnel such as teachers, nurses and other government officials when they are deployed to difference regions of the country.
Some even reject the job just because they have been deployed to a region which they do not like.
Poor members of the community do not want to work with the rich members of the community just because they feel inferior to a rich man.
Also the rich man treats the poor members of community as failures who can contribute nothing to the development of a community and a country.
Inadequate citizen power
The other factor that hinders the decision making and development process is inadequate citizen power which has also slowed community’s participation in development process of our country.
Despite the government embarking on various decentralisation processes, the real power of decision making has not been given to the people.
Members of the public are merely informed or consulted on various matters of development without allowing their views and decisions to be incorporated into the development programmes.
Therefore to achieve a complete and full public participation in the development process of our country, these issues should be addressed by the government, private organisations, NGOs, Churches and individuals.
Public participation in the development process is a key to sustainable development, accountability and transparency in the governance of the country.