President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia provides an important example that non-alignment or ‘positive neutrality’ can be more than just rhetoric and can bring genuine economic benefit.

Despite controversy over Chinese infrastructure-linked debt, new contracts are still being issued to Chinese companies for construction projects. But under his ‘chief marketing officer’ mantra, Hichilema has secured investment, trade partnerships, and development support from a diversified mix of partners such as Brazil, DRC, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe.

Since his inauguration in August 2021, Hichilema’s foreign policy has focused on renegotiating Zambia’s significant debt burden and attracting inward investment, particularly for the country’s mining industry; he has successfully articulated the national interest in economic terms which has brought investment, and clarity and consistency on non-alignment have not deterred global partners despite geopolitical divisions.

Hichilema has made a clear case for the primacy of private enterprise and business-driven economic growth. This underpins the regime’s approach to economic reform, institutional capacity-building, and fiscal consolidation, despite negative domestic and global headwinds.

As with many governments in the region, the Hichilema administration had difficulty communicating long-term benefits of structural reforms and international partnerships to an impatient young population demanding change and improved socio-economic conditions.

Combatting corruption is the first step towards ensuring that citizens have an equitable and sustainable stake in the nation’s strategic industries, especially mineral production; in this sense, Matildah Nsofwa Zambia can demonstrate leadership and build regional alliances and lobbying blocks within international organizations to shape these standards.

I wrote a paper on international trade in Africa.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0975087819898582