Caritas Zambia

Caritas Zambia is an institution under the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC). It was formerly known as the Catholic Centre for Justice Development and Peace (CCJDP). The Bishops of Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC) during their plenary meeting in February 2007, resolved among others, that the Catholic Centre for Justice Development and Peace (CCJDP) be renamed Caritas Zambia. The name change was finally launched on 13th November 2007, at Kapingila House in Kabulonga, where the offices are located.

It was born out of a restructuring and change process embarked upon by the Catholic Secretariat between 1999 and 2000. This process was aimed at enhancing the sustainability of the Catholic Secretariat as a support institution and administrative centre of ZEC. Among the key issues focused on were issues of financial sustainability and coordination/cooperation across departments. Thus among the outcomes of the change process was the amalgamation of the two former departments of Catholic Secretariat (Justice and Peace and Development) into one centre which today is called Caritas Zambia. The rationale behind the merger was that the two departments are both working to promote the social programmes of the Church. Integrating them into one structure would therefore bring their strengths together, help their interventions to be better linked and coordinated, promote cost efficiency in the utilisation of resources and would help enhance efficiency in relationships with partners and other social actors beyond the boundaries of the Church.

Not withstanding the merger, the general framework of Caritas Zambia mandate and engagement remains primarily anchored in the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Constitution and the Catholic Commission for Development Policy for Development. In unity with the Commissions for Justice and Peace and Development, Caritas Zambia is challenged to:

• engage in programmes of conscientisation in order to awaken God’s people to a deeper understanding of their call as Christians with regard to social justice,
• form a critical conscience that empowers people to challenge and to act to overcome unjust situations in national governance, and
• to promote development as a process of liberation from constraints of ignorance, poverty, disease, oppression, exploitation and injustices so that people become masters of their own lives.

In terms of concretising this mandate operationally, Caritas Zambia has dual but complementary approaches. Firstly it is established to empower diocesan structures with necessary capacities to make the required community interventions. Secondly, Caritas Zambia has direct lobbying and advocacy work with institutions of governance and the private sector to ensure that policies made are sensitive to the situation of the poor and marginalized and also to hold government accountable.

The creation of Caritas Zambia is an opportunity for a strong and coordinated force in promoting and meeting not only the objectives of the commissions for Justice and Peace and Development but also ZEC evangelisation mission. The complementarities of Justice and Peace and Development in Caritas Zambia lies in the fact that both governance unit (CCJP) and human development (CCD) are committed to upholding human dignity through the promotion of integral human development. While the governance unit mainly focuses on advocacy for a just environment for human development the human development focuses on the transformation of the people to confront the challenges of development.

The vision of Caritas Zambia is that of a Zambian society where every person has attained integral human development. It’s linked to vision of ZEC i.e. holistic evangelisation of the people of Zambia. Since 2004 Caritas Zambia has been working in five strategic programme areas. These are; Governance, Poverty, HIV/AIDS, Spirituality and Capacity Development. Gender and HIV/AIDS are treated as crosscutting to all the strategic areas of focus.
 
Through these efforts and those of other stakeholders, we look forward to the attainment of integral human development by all. For more information on Caritas Zambia, visit www.cartaszambia.org.zm