Impact of Election Expenditure on Agricultural Service Delivery Expenditure in Zambia, 2000-2021

Abstract

Purpose: This paper examined the public expenditure changes between elections and agriculture service delivery. The aim was to determine how the relationship trend related to agriculture growth. Early analyses assumed that elections act as a signal for preferential public expenditure. Thus, in Zambia, agriculture would be a priority as the government claims over 70% of citizens, directly or indirectly earn from the sector.
 Methodology: Times series secondary data was analyzed for descriptive statistics from 2000 to 2021.
 Findings: The evidence is that agriculture public expenditure was lower than CAADP targets in this period. Agriculture research as a service received the lowest funding. The trend also revealed that there were very sharp increases in election expenditure in both the preceding year and in the year of elections. In most election years this was close to 2% of total national public spending over the study period. These election spending spikes may have induced cyclical fiscal shocks, difficult to recover from, resulting in limited fiscal space and a reduction in agriculture spending. The electoral cycle induced fiscal shocks, over time, may have also led to a downward trend in agriculture growth. The authors identify this phenomenon as the ‘functionality burden of democracy’.
 Recommendation: Based on the findings the study recommends that agreed policy objectives in agriculture and CAADP commitments must become a national mission. This would mean that the agriculture goals are shared at all levels including family, schools, private sector, civil society and the media.