Alive & Kicking enjoyed watching Zambia ease past Sudan on Saturday night to set up their first Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in 16 years, a mouth-watering tie against Ghana. They may lack the superstar status of Kalusha Bwalya, their finest ever player and inspiration throughout the 80s and 90s, but the nation of Zambia has come a long way since 1996. Here we follow Zambia’s trajectory from independence to their third AFCON semi-final in 18 years:

On gaining independence in 1964, Zambia was overly reliant on its major industry – copper.  A single party political system was soon established under President Kenneth Kaunda, who nationalised the major mining corporations by 1970. Copper prices slumped over the following decade, causing a balance of payments crisis that led Zambia to become one of the world’s most indebted nations during the 1980s.

Continued economic decline and the collapse of the Soviet Union (which had supported ‘African socialism’) precipitated the end of Kaunda’s regime in 1991. Frederick Chiluba won the ensuing multi-party elections and Zambia embarked on a process of economic liberalisation.

The road to a free market economy has not been entirely smooth, as Zambia’s ailing industries struggled to compete during Chiluba’s tenure. This was part inevitability after 30 years of centralised mis-management, part consequence of institutional corruption. Inflation was brought under control and exports were boosted, but average living standards remained painfully low.

Read the rest of this post »

Alive & Kicking does a round up of some interesting African Social Enterprises in the news in 2011, of course there are loads more great organisations out there but here are some we found particularly innovative!

As everyone else involved in Zambia, Alive & Kicking has been closely following the recent elections in the country. We thought we would collate the most interesting articles we come across, and here they are, followed by how the change in President might affect our operations in Zambia. Michael Sata, the Patriotic Front candidate commonly [...]

Does Africa have the balls for the global export market? We estimate that there are approximately 100 million inflatable balls made each year globally, and Alive & Kicking is responsible for just 70,000 of them. Whilst the manufacture of Alive & Kicking balls has a considerable impact on the communities we work in, each of [...]

There are two major shifts occurring in the global industry in football manufacture. The first is a shift in the geographic distribution of where balls are made and sold. The second is in the development of new technologies in ball manufacture. According to Dr Khalid Nadvi, an authority on trends in the global football industry, [...]