About the Zambia Devolution Support Program

The Zambia Devolution Support Program (ZDSP), a US$210 million initiative financed by the International Development Association (IDA), was approved by the World Bank Board on 28 June 2022 and became effective on 24 November 2022. This Program is designed to advance the Government of Zambia’s decentralisation agenda, with a strong focus on fiscal decentralisation, the transfer of responsibilities from sector ministries, enhanced institutional performance, and capacity building for Local Authorities (LAs). At its core, the Program aims to reinforce the financing, operational effectiveness, and accountability of Local Authorities across the country.

In 2024, the Program was restructured to align with the Government’s response to the national drought emergency and to integrate key lessons from the initial year of implementation (2023). The revisions focused on enhancing the Program’s outcome orientation and strengthening its contribution to both the devolution agenda and disaster response efforts. Key changes included:

• Redesigning the Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs) to sharpen the focus on results and ensure measurable benefits aligned with national priorities.
• Increasing performance-based incentives for Local Authorities (LAs), particularly to reward improvements in own-source revenue (OSR) collection and management.
• Expanding the Program’s reach to include all 116 Local Authorities across Zambia.