The role of donors in policy making : in the environmental management sector in Zambia

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of donors in policy making and implementation in the environmental management sector in Zambia. This was achieved by looking at the support donors provide in policy making, challenges of policy making and the effectiveness of environmental management policies, the key stakeholders in policy making and how they contribute to policy making and to establish whether there was donor influence in policy making in Zambia. The sample population of the study consisted of government departments, donors, statutory bodies, NGOs and CBOs involved in environmental management in Zambia. It was found that policy making was an expensive exercise hence governments depended on external financial support to formulate policies. Thus most policies had not been reviewed for some time due to inadequate financial resources. Other challenges in policy making included; government bureaucracy, inadequate information, conflict of interests among different key stakeholders and weak linkages between research and policy making.