Rural land resettlement programmes in Zambia : problems, lessons and prospects

Africa is afflicted by severe and urgent socio-economic, political and environmental problems that are well known and have been analysed and documented by Africans themselves and by international institutions. Prominent among which arc the growing mass unemployment, particularly of the youth; rapid population growth rates; crises engendered by natural and environmental catastrophes resulting in drought and wide-spread famine; crises due to internal or regional conflicts; the effect of cause of political forces with scant respect for the rights of individuals or communities; crises that stem from a deteriorating economy, deficits in the balance of payments and the burden of debt, combined with inadequate agricultural production, deficient infrastructure and the deterioration of social services. In this region is the Southern Africa crisis where a discriminatory minority regime is sowing destruction beyond its borders, triggering the exodus of thousands of refugees.