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The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa with a population of 11,669,534.  Zambia is divided into nine provinces and subdivided into 73 districts.

Debt remains a problem and as most countries around the world, Zambia has an unequal distribution of income with the bottom 10% of society receiving just 1.1% of the income, while the top 10% of society receives 41%.  HIV/AIDS continues to be the largest problem in Zambia with a 16.5% adult prevalence rate.

The World Health Organisation estimate of 10-20% of any population being disabled means there could be as many as 2 million disabled people living in Zambia.  The government recognises that all disabled people are entitled to the same rights as non disabled people and efforts have been made to address this in the National Development Plan. 

The Zambian government and disabled people's organisations welcomed the recently adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and signed it in May 2008,  In addition Government has put in place a citizen economic empowerment act aimed at empowering disabled people and have appointed a disability focal point person to track budgeting and programmes for disabled people in all sector ministries. As part of involvement of disabled people in governance issues the government has included disabled people in the consultation process of the soon to be enacted national constitution.

ADD Zambia have no immediate plans to scale up work into new areas but will continue to emphasise on sustainable organizational development and supporting advocacy work to ensure disabled people's organisations continued participation in policy debates, particularly those related to the pursuance of the Millennium Development Goals.