Launched with the main goal of making a real, lasting difference in the health and well-being of mothers and children in Ng’ombe Township, Lusaka, this pilot project focused on providing support where it was needed most through maternal mental health support, neonatal care, and stronger ties within the community. The project aligned closely with Zambia’s National Health Strategic Plan (2022-2026) and brought together key partners, including LKCDA, the Ministry of Health, Ng’ombe Clinic, and local community members.

For maternal health, the project’s increase in antenatal and postnatal care follow-ups brought much-needed support to 56 pregnant women and 58 postnatal mothers, who received home visits that reassured them and offered mental health education. Many mothers shared that the project’s emphasis on family-centered care made them feel seen and valued, especially in the vulnerable postnatal period.

For newborns and young children, the project’s focus on training healthcare workers in essential skills like neonatal resuscitation, Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC), and breastfeeding had a measurable effect. By using these methods, the project helped reduce neonatal referrals by nearly half, from 31 to 16, over five months. KMC practice was also a lifesaver during power outages, as it allowed mothers to keep their babies warm naturally when resources were stretched. Ng’ombe Clinic provided Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) for over 400 newborns, demonstrating just how much families and health workers valued this approach.

Our Strategic Response: Building a Clinic-to-Community Care Model

LKCDA conceptualized the Maternal and Child Health Empowerment Project (MCHEP) to be a specific pilot project to fulfill this gap. With funding from ChildFund Zambia, and in partnership with the Ministry of Health, and the Ng’ombe Clinic, LKCDA implemented a comprehensive two-component approach that meets the objectives of the Zambia Health Strategic Plan, as well as the SDG3:

• i. Empowering Frontline Health Workers: Training healthcare workers, midwives and nurses, significantly grew their skills in KMC, maternal mental health, and neonatal resuscitation equipped them to better serve their community’s needs. Small, thoughtful adjustments like making KMC mandatory during colder weather to keep babies warm highlighted how even simple changes can have a powerful impact on newborn health, such as preventing hypothermia.
• ii. Community Support Activation: The project trained 10 community-based volunteers (CBVs) in health education and capacity building, consequently forming a health support network for 56 pregnant and 58 lactating women.

The Voice of a Mother

"The care saved my baby, and taught me how to be strong for him. When my baby was small, the nurses taught me how to hold him skin-to-skin. They also told me I was his best medicine. During the blackouts, I was not afraid, and I knew my hug was keeping my baby alive,” reports Abigail Mukuka, who received services through the project.

Invest in Scaling a Proven Solution: The MCHEP pilot represents a scalable, affordable model for newborn survival improvement in resource-poor settings. The success welcomes expansion. Your partnership can help LKCDA take this initiative to more clinics, training more health workers and volunteers, so every newborn within our communities can realize their full potential.

Background

For many families living in Lusaka’s high-density and peri-urban communities, childbirth is not only a moment of joy—it is also a period of heightened vulnerability. In areas such as Ng’ombe, Mandevu, and Chawama, health professionals and community health workers have consistently reported that expectant and new mothers arrive at health facilities without basic items essential for a safe and dignified start to life.

Items such as warm blankets, baby clothing, hygiene supplies, and protective materials—simple yet critical for newborn care—remain out of reach for families facing persistent economic hardship. The absence of these essentials compromises safe newborn practices at birth and in the early postnatal period.

This gap leaves newborns at increased risk of preventable infections, cold stress, and poor hygiene-related complications during the most vulnerable stage of life. For many young and first-time mothers, the experience of childbirth is often marked by anxiety, shame, and uncertainty, rather than confidence, dignity, and support.

The Solution: A Simple Intervention with Life-Saving Potential

In response to this challenge, Lusaka Child Development Agency (LKCDA), with support from ChildFund Zambia, implemented a one-time Baby Health Kit distribution to support pregnant women and protect infants during their most vulnerable first six months of life. The initiative was designed as a targeted, time-bound response, integrated within existing health facilities and community structures to promote transparency, dignity, and effective reach.

Across supported health facilities and surrounding communities, a total of 825 Baby Health Kits were distributed to pregnant women and mothers with infants aged 0–6 months. This ensured that access to essential preventive health items was not constrained by ability to pay.

The distribution strategy was health system-anchored, as well as community-driven, with:

• A total of 486 kits were distributed within health facilities to eligible beneficiaries identified by trained health staff and Community Health Volunteers.
• A total of 339 kits were distributed through Community Association offices, where trained Communication Agents identified eligible beneficiaries.

The Impact: Dignity, Protection, and Health from Day One

The impact of the Baby Health Kit intervention stretches beyond the content of the kit. For the 825 mothers and babies, the Baby Health Kit offered warmth, hygiene, and protection during a critical period in life.

For young caregivers, this intervention not only provided them with support in material terms, but also with a feeling of hope.

“When I delivered, I had nothing prepared,” says Mary, a first-time mother from Ng’ombe. “The baby kit gave my child warmth and hygiene from the first day. I felt supported, not ashamed.”

“I was worried my baby would fall sick because I could not afford the basics. This support came at the right time. It gave me peace and confidence as a mother,” — Agnes, Chawama

The impact has also been felt by health workers.

“We have fewer complications from poor hygiene. These baby kits help mothers provide proper care for their new baby from birth,” says a midwife from Ng’ombe Clinic.

Why This Matters: Investing in the First 1,000 Days

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are critical for survival, healthy growth, cognitive development, and long-term wellbeing. During this period, simple, evidence-based interventions, including the provision of baby health kits, contribute to illness prevention, support positive caregiving practices, strengthen caregiver–infant bonding, and promote healthy behaviours.

This initiative aligns directly with:

• SDG 3: Improving maternal and newborn health
• SDG 10: Reducing inequalities in access to essential services
• SDG 17: Strengthening partnerships for sustainable impact

An Ongoing Need: From Short-Term Mitigation to Sustainable Impact

While the Baby Health Kit initiative has effectively reduced immediate risks for vulnerable mothers and newborns, the underlying need remains persistent. This intervention was implemented as a targeted response within available resources and was not intended to address the full scale of ongoing demand.

Each month, new mothers in Lusaka’s peri-urban communities—such as Chawama and Ng’ombe—continue to face similar challenges, underscoring the need for sustained and scalable support to protect newborns from preventable health risks.

This initiative serves as a proof of impact, demonstrating what is possible when timely support reaches those most in need, while also highlighting the critical importance of long-term investment to achieve lasting change.

A Call to Action: Help Us Reach the Next Newborn

Scaling What Works: A Call to Partnership

The need remains urgent. Every month, a new generation of newborns is exposed to the same preventable risks. This proven intervention has the potential to reach more mothers, more health facilities, and more communities through strategic partnerships.

We invite partners to join us in the following ways:

• Health and development donors to scale the provision of Baby Health Kits within integrated maternal and newborn health programmes.
• Government and health institutions to integrate Baby Health Kits into routine maternal and newborn health services.
• Philanthropic champions to help ensure that no child’s life is placed at risk due to poverty.

Together, we can ensure that every child begins life protected, dignified, and cherished—from the very first day.

Young People Turning Waste into Opportunity

Unmanaged waste is perhaps the main challenge facing Zambia's growing cities like Lusaka. Over 60% of municipal waste is not disposed off properly, leading to clogged drains and flooded cities. This growing environmental disaster converges with perhaps Zambia's most salient social problem: its nearly crippling youth employment rate that stifles the possibilities of an entire generation, especially as floods destroy homes and schools. Moreover, floods have also exposed people to health challenges due to poor climatic conditions. For example, in Lusaka city, thousands of tonnes of solid waste across the country are generated every day, yet the largest quantities are not managed. Statistics have shown, according to the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) annual report, 2023, that over 60 percent of waste in Zambia is not properly managed, leading to floods in Zambia. In addition, unemployment among the youth in Zambia persists and still presents itself as a challenge for the future generation, with unemployment in Zambia listed as a whole crisis in itself. However, this challenge comes with enormous potential to transform and deliver much for Zambia.

The Challenge: An Urban Crisis Meets Youth Potential

Before the LKCDA intervention, the youth in communities such as Kanyama, Chawama, Mandevu, etc., were confronted with a harsh reality, including having no technical capabilities to view waste as something other than a challenge or impediment; having no option to obtain green economy financing such as the Constituency Development Funds (CDF); and having no role models in the entrepreneurship environment. These challenges have resulted in young people being unemployed and on the other hand compounds such as Kanyama, Chawama, Mandevu, among others continued to face the emerging health and environmental challenges from mismanaged waste.

Our Response: Youth-Led Green Enterprises

In response, Lusaka Child Development Agency (LKCDA) in partnership with ChildFund and ZEMA conducted trainings in Solid Waste Management and Recycling for 25 youths from target communities within LKCDA catchment areas in Lusaka District. The trainings included both theoretical and practical aspects such as a visit to recycling companies to expose youths to the use of waste in a productive manner to generate income.

• i. Knowledge & Policy: Training on the 4Rs framework (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), waste classification, and Zambia's Extended Producer Responsibility regulations.
• ii. Practical Market Skills: Hands-on sessions in waste segregation, value-chain analysis, and business planning for the recycling sector.
• iii. Real-World Exposure: Field visits to operational plastic aggregation sites and recycling plants to turn theory into tangible opportunity.
• iv. Access to Finance: Direct guidance on forming cooperatives and navigating funding mechanisms like the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to finance the transformation of ideas into viable businesses.

Voices of the New Green Vanguard

“This training has given me a lesson that protecting the environment does not have to be left to experts alone. I am a young woman, yet I now see that I am able to lead a ‘green’ enterprise that will enable me to support my family,” says a 21 year old Thandiwe.

“Before this training, waste meant nothing to me. Now I see income, jobs, and a clean community. I want to start a recycling cooperative with other young people,” says 23 old Brian.

Why It Matters: Investing in Dual Solutions & Our Call to Action

The initiative takes two of the most critical challenges facing Zambia; environmental degradation and youth unemployment; and finds one smart, scalable solution to both. It directly furthers SDG8 for decent work, SDG12 for responsible consumption, and SDG13 for climate action while aligning with national priorities on youth empowerment and environmental health.

Investing in the model involves investing in community-led climate change adaptation with reduced flood risks, the overall concept of inclusion with regard to employment creation, and the overall concept of inclusion with regard to the future capabilities of the youth.

Our Call to Action: This initiative shows that with the appropriate skills and knowledge, young people have the power to effect change. LKCDA invites donors, private sector players, as well as government institutions and development partners, to partner with us and support:

• i. Development of the Expanded Solid Waste Management and Recycling Training Program for More Youth.
• ii. Help us strengthen the green ecosystem by facilitating market linkages for recycled materials, offering technical expertise, or co-designing advanced leadership modules.
• iii. Supporting youth-led cooperatives and green enterprises
• iv. Strengthen access to finance, markets, and mentorship
• v. Scaling up initiatives within communities to promote the environment while creating jobs

Together, we can transform waste into wealth and empower a generation of young Zambians to build a cleaner, more resilient, and prosperous future for all.

Why Birth Registration Matters

For every child, a birth certificate is more than just a document -it is proof of identity and a gateway to essential rights and services, including education, health care, social protection, and legal recognition. Without it, a child’s access to these fundamental opportunities is often delayed or denied.

In Zambia, despite progress in civil registration systems, many children still begin life without official birth registration. National evidence from the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) and administrative data from the Department of National Registration, Passport, and Citizenship (DNRPC) consistently show that a significant proportion of children under the age of five remain without birth certificates, with the greatest gaps found among poor households and in high-density urban and peri-urban communities.

In Lusaka’s high-density residential areas such as Ng’ombe and Chawama, where Lusaka Child Development Agency (LKCDA) operates, these challenges are often more pronounced. Families facing persistent economic hardship must prioritise immediate survival needs—such as food, shelter, and school-related costs—making birth registration a lower priority despite its long-term importance.

As a result, many children remain legally invisible during their early years, increasing their vulnerability and limiting their access to essential services at a critical stage of development.

Closing a Critical Gap: Bringing Birth Registration Closer to Communities

To address this pressing but often overlooked challenge, Lusaka Child Development Agency (LKCDA), in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Zambia through the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship (DNRPC), and with active community participation, implemented a targeted, one-time birth registration outreach in its areas of operation.

The initiative was designed as a mitigation measure—a time-bound opportunity to close a critical access gap by bringing birth registration services directly to families who would otherwise face significant barriers. Through this approach, LKCDA helped address common challenges such as transport costs, long waiting times at registration offices, and limited access to information on registration requirements.

Our Approach

• Mobile birth registration services were delivered directly within communities
• Caregivers were sensitised on the importance of birth registration and required documentation
• Community volunteers and LKCDA staff supported mobilisation, coordination, and follow-up
• Government officials provided officially recognised birth registration and certification services

What Changed: Children Counted, Futures Unlocked

Through this partnership, hundreds of children in LKCDA’s target communities were successfully registered and supported to obtain birth certificates. For many families, this marked a turning point—transforming legal invisibility into recognition, protection, and opportunity.

“I had tried before, but I was told to come back with documents I did not understand. When LKCDA brought the officers into our community and explained everything clearly, my child was finally registered.” — Martha, mother from Ng’ombe

“This certificate will protect my child’s future. Even if I am no longer here, my child will know who they are.” — Patrick, parent from Chawama

Birth registration outcomes

• Births notified: 4,624 (Male: 2,161 | Female: 2,463)
• Births notified and certified: 19,191 (Male: 9,568 | Female: 9,623)

These numbers included children who were newly registered or who were assisted to transition from notification to formal certification, thereby helping to address one of the most critical gaps in the country’s birth registration system.

Beyond the certificates themselves, the intervention restored confidence and dignity among parents and caregivers. By removing access barriers and providing clear information and support, families were empowered to claim their children’s rights and engage more confidently with public systems.

For children, being registered is the first step toward a future where they can fully access education, health services, and social protection—and where their existence is formally recognised and protected.

Why Birth Registration Matters for Children

Birth registration is a cornerstone of child protection. It provides a child with legal identity and enables access to essential services such as health care, education, and social protection. This intervention demonstrated that when public systems are brought closer to communities, barriers can be reduced and trust between families and the state can be strengthened.

By delivering registration services within communities, the initiative showed the potential of responsive, people-centred systems to work effectively—especially for families who are most often left behind.

A Critical Reality: The Gap Remains

While the intervention achieved meaningful results, it was a time-bound initiative. The structural challenges that limit universal birth registration in Lusaka—poverty, mobility, limited-service access, and information gaps—persist. Each year, new children are born into the same conditions. Without sustained, coordinated, and scaled efforts, many will continue to miss the opportunity for timely birth registration, delaying their access to essential rights and protections.

To ensure that every child is counted, birth registration efforts must be:

• Regular and decentralised, reaching families where they live
• Integrated into health facilities and community systems
• Adequately financed and institutionally supported
• Strengthened through continued collaboration between government and civil society

Looking Forward: From Contribution to Collective Action

LKCDA’s approach—community-based, government-led, and child-centred—has demonstrated what is possible when partnerships work in practice. Building on this experience, we now seek to scale this model to reach more children and families.

We invite partners to join us in the following ways:

• Government partners: to embed community- and facility-based birth registration within routine service delivery
• Development and humanitarian donors: to fund sustained birth registration outreach in peri-urban areas
• Corporate and philanthropic partners: to support financing and innovative solutions that expand access
• Civil society organisations: to strengthen community awareness, mobilisation, and follow-up

Together, we can ensure that no child remains invisible simply because of where they are born—and that every child begins life recognised, protected, and counted.

From Crisis to Resilience: LKCDA's Integrated Response to the El Niño Drought

The 2023/24 El Niño-related drought was not simply another natural occurrence; it was an aggravation of poverty in some of the poorest communities in Lusaka, Zambia. Recognized by the Zambia Meteorological Department as one of the most severe in decades, the drought plunged over 6 million Zambians into acute food insecurity. However, in areas like Ng’ombe, Mandevu, and Chawama, as densely populated as these are, many communities already living precariously on the edge of poverty now had to contend with yet another unendurable disaster, depleted food supplies, and family income. For children, the drought translated into a literally developmental-growing menace facing some of these communities in Zambia!

Our Strategic Intervention: Choice and Nutrition

In response to the crisis, LKCDA employed a dual-modality approach with a focus on maximizing both dignity and nutrition. On one hand, LKCDA implemented cash transfer of 600 ZMW among 379 households of enrolled children into our programs. In doing so, the organization ensured an empowered family, through its first-responder approach which allowed parents and guardians to have power to purchase essential items like medicine, food, and educational requirements. On the other hand, LKCDA directly shielded 314 of the most vulnerable identified children from hunger through the provision of essential food packets containing 3kg of ‘protein’ soya chunks, mealie meal, cooking oil, sugar, and salt as a frontline instrument of defence against child malnutrition.

"The cash came when our kitchen was silent. It wasn't just money; it was a choice. We bought food, yes, but also seeds to plant when the rains finally came," shares Patrick, 24, a youth caregiver from Ng'ombe.

Stability Restored, Foundations for Resilience Built

The impact of this type of intervention can be quantified not just through results, but the stability re-established to hundreds of families, as well as the core-level resilience developed within the community. Indeed, timely, lifesaving support allowed 693 highly vulnerable households to resist the very worst effects of the crisis-avoiding harmful coping strategies such as selling off productive assets, pulling children from school, or slipping into debt that was unsustainable. For families living on the edge, this support became a very critical buffer at a moment of deep uncertainty, allowing them to protect both their livelihoods and their children's future.

Besides immediate relief, the strategy ensured that children were supported via a system of care and connection that was deeper. The distribution process, coupled with its associated verifications, created critical touchpoints that enabled continued child protection and sponsorship engagement, which kept the children “in view,” “in support,” “in account,”, while at the same time purposive investment in local volunteer networks, as a way to improve trust and ensure people are “in readiness,”, defined a populace that was in a better place than it was previously – ready to respond, ready to recover, from a shock that could have otherwise served as a disruptor in a world that has been given a chance to recover from a previous shock.

"My siblings stopped crying from hunger. That food pack was a promise that they were not forgotten. It gave me hope to keep fighting for my family," says Esther, 19, from Mandevu.

It is certain that climate change will result in an increased and deeper level of shocks like the one described. It is important that our response is not strictly reactive and relies on aid.

As shown through LKCDA's response, we have a model for effective and viable climate adaptation worldwide. In providing a mixture of flexible cash and targeted nutrition support, we can intervene to ensure both survival and recovery, so that children and communities do not have their development paths derailed by disaster. It is a good investment for SDG 13: Climate Action, intervening at a local level to support those least to blame for climate change, but those most affected by it.

Background

In Zambia, education remains one of the most powerful pathways out of poverty. Yet for many children living in high-density urban communities, access to quality education is increasingly fragile. Evidence from education and child-welfare reports shows that children from low-income urban households are disproportionately at risk of falling behind in literacy, repeating grades, or dropping out of school altogether. Economic hardship, food insecurity, unemployment, and the growing impacts of climate-related stress continue to stretch household resources beyond their limits.

In Lusaka’s high-density peri-urban communities such as Ng’ombe, Mandevu, and Chawama, these pressures shape the daily realities of children and their caregivers. For many families, the cost of basic learning materials—exercise books, pens, and school bags—presents a significant barrier to school participation.

Prior to LKCDA’s intervention, community feedback revealed a troubling pattern: some children attended school without learning materials, relying on shared books or going without entirely, limiting their ability to participate meaningfully in class. Others stayed home, not because of poor academic ability, but due to shame and the fear of being singled out. For these children, poverty had become not only a barrier to learning, but also a threat to their dignity, confidence, and hope for the future.

The Response: Removing Barriers to Learning, One Child at a Time

In response to these challenges, Lusaka Child Development Agency (LKCDA) implemented a targeted, one-time intervention—the Educational Materials Distribution Initiative—to reduce immediate barriers to learning for children already enrolled in LKCDA-supported programmes. The initiative focused on ensuring that children had the basic tools required to participate meaningfully in classroom learning and home-based study.

Working through three community associations—Ng’ombe, Luumuno, and Tiyanjane—LKCDA distributed 990 sets of educational materials to learners in Early Childhood Education (ECE), primary, and secondary schools. The intervention was deliberately anchored within existing community structures to ensure transparency, accountability, and equitable reach.

Beyond material support, LKCDA integrated the distribution with sensitisation activities targeting parents, caregivers, and children. These sessions reinforced the value of education, consistent school attendance, and proper use of learning materials, while strengthening collaboration between families, schools, and community leadership.

Although modest in scale, the intervention was designed as a protective and enabling measure, responding to a critical moment in the school term. By addressing immediate material gaps, it helped stabilize children’s school participation at a time when many were at risk of disengagement.

The Impact: Confidence Restored, Learning Reignited

For children, the educational materials represented far more than books and stationery—they restored a sense of belonging, confidence, and motivation in the classroom.

“Before, I used to share one book with friends. Now I can write and read on my own. I feel confident when the teacher asks me to work,” — Brian, 13, Tiyanjane

“I like drawing and writing stories about my home. My book helps me show what I feel,” — Agnes, 9, Ng’ombe

Parents and caregivers described the intervention as both timely and relieving.

“We were worried because we could not afford exercise books. When LKCDA gave us these materials, it removed a heavy burden from my heart,” — Ruth, mother from Luumuno

“The bag and books came exactly when schools were opening. It helped us keep our child in school without stress,” — Grace, caregiver from Ng’ombe

Young people and community volunteers also recognized the broader, long-term value of the support.

“Education is the only way out for us. When younger children have books, they stay focused and hopeful,” — Daniel, 21, youth volunteer, Luumuno

Results at a Glance

• 990 educational material sets distributed across three high-density communities
• 100% coverage of enrolled ECE, primary, and secondary learners in supported programmes
• Improved classroom participation, confidence, and engagement
• Strengthened home-based learning, with increased parental involvement in literacy activities

Why This Matters: Education as Protection and Opportunity

Education is one of the most powerful protective factors in a child’s life. When children remain in school, their risk of exposure to child labour, early marriage, exploitation, and neglect is significantly reduced. Access to basic learning materials plays a critical role in improving attendance, literacy development, and academic progression—particularly in the early grades.

By easing the financial burden on vulnerable households and reinforcing positive learning practices, this intervention contributes directly to:

• SDG 4: Inclusive and equitable quality education
• SDG 1: Reducing the burden on poor households
• SDG 16: Promoting children’s participation, voice, and expression

Through writing, drawing, and learning, children were given safe and meaningful ways to express their thoughts, hopes, and emotions—an often overlooked but essential dimension of child wellbeing and development.

A Call to Partnership: Investing in Education That Lasts

At LKCDA, we believe that no child should be denied the opportunity to learn because of poverty. This initiative has demonstrated what targeted support can achieve—and has also highlighted the need for sustained, scalable solutions.

We invite partners to join us in:

• Scaling sustainable education support for children in high-density urban communities
• Integrating learning materials into comprehensive child protection and education programmes
• Building long-term solutions that enable children to stay in school, engaged, confident, and hopeful

Together, we can move beyond short-term fixes to lasting change—ensuring that children across Lusaka’s most vulnerable communities have the tools, confidence, and opportunities they need to learn, grow, and thrive.