Statusrapport
Mid-term Review of Projects under the Norad Agreement (2016-2019) in Zambia
Zambia ranks 10th globally on incidences of child marriage as 31% of girls below 18 years are in marriage despite the constitutional age of marriage for being pegged at 21 years (ZDHS, 2013-14). This is further worsened by the widespread acceptability of customary law, which does not impose any legal age of marriage (using puberty as a measure for readiness for marriage). The Zambian education system is rated low in terms of education quality, including inclusiveness, thus threatening the long-term production and livelihoods. Despite being a signatory to CRC, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); among others, Zambia remains outside the 1960 UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education (UNESCO Zambia, 2016). Low government spending in the education sector, which ranges from 2 to 2.5% of GDP, has contributed to education supply constraints, chiefly the inadequacy of classrooms, teachers and desks. Despite existence of community level child protection structures, there is still inadequate involvement of other stakeholders in protection systems such as school and health centres. The Mid-Term Review (MTR) assessed the degree to which planned outcomes around the four projects are on course to achieve the targeted results. The key objectives of the MTR was to assess the projects for the following: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, project management and sustainability. The MTR also assessed the project’s performance on cross cutting issues; gender equality, disability inclusion, unexpected results, added value and participation.