Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Despite political stability and more than a decade of consistent economic growth, the country faces numerous challenges including food insecurity, undernutrition, chronic poverty and natural disasters.

Unpredictable weather patterns have affected communities over the last decade. Farmers rely heavily on seasonal rains and subsistence-style farming is common in the country. The Zambian climate is favourable for growing a range of crops including maize, cotton, tobacco, and groundnuts.

Zambia was reclassified by the World Bank as a lower middle-income country in 2011. While it has maintained steady economic growth rates for the past decade, human development indicators remain static, with the country still ranking 143 out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index.

WFP has been in the country since 1967.

Show more
16.2 million
population
40%
of children under 5 are stunted
63%
of people live in poverty
Download country brief

What the World Food Programme is doing in Zambia

  • Nutrition

    WFP in Zambia hosts and co-facilitates the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) Business Network. The Network – comprising 60 organizations, including at least 30 local businesses – aims to increase awareness and the demand for nutritious products; strengthen commercial engagement within the nutrition marketplace; and improve the regulatory environment for nutrition.

  • Building resilience and responses to climate change

    Through the Rural Resilience Initiative (R4), WFP in Zambia is helping smallholder farmers to address the risks posed by climate change-related events, such as drought. This is done through conservation agriculture activities supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Targeted smallholder families are equipped with strategies to help build resilience over time and escape poverty and food and nutrition insecurity.

  • Response to El Niño

    Developed with support from WFP and other agencies to respond to the recent El Niño weather event, the Government’s Integrated Emergency Response Programme includes interventions such as social cash transfers, maize distribution, emergency school feeding, nutrition surveillance and emergency supplementary and therapeutic feeding for infants and children under 5.

Related publications

Show more

In focus

Read more stories

Zambia news releases

Go to page

Partners and Donors

  • Government of Zambia
    Multilaterals
    SDC
    SIDA
    Private Donors
  • Food for Peace
    CERF
    KOICA
    UNICEF

Find out more about the state of food security in Zambia

Visit the food security analysis page

Operations in Zambia

View all operations

Contacts

Lusaka

Plot 10/4971, Tito Road, Rhodes Park, Lusaka, Zambia, P.O. Box 37726

Email

WFP.Lusaka@wfp.org

Phone: +260 1 253 845

Fax: +260 1 252 955

For media inquiries

WFP.Lusaka@wfp.org