As Zambia continues on its recovery path, Social Sectors spending remain cardinal to providing both increased and good quality services to its increasing population. The level of resources allocated to these sectors through the National Budget is thus important. This section provides an analytical perspective of the Social Sector resource allocations in the 2018 Budget drawing on a number of perspectives including past progress, current issues and future prospects as expressed in the 7NDP. Particularly the section seeks to answer the question of whether or not the country is ‘leaving no one behind’ through the perspective of the 2018 Budget. The 2018 relative share of the Social Sector Budget to the National Budget has remained static at 32%. However, in absolute terms the allocation has actually increased nominally from K20.9 billion in 2017 to K22.8 billion in 2018. This translates to an increase of 10% (3% in real terms with year-end inflation projected at 7%).
