Needs Assessment Report

Executive Summary
As a precursor to strengthen the democratic foundations of freedom of speech and assembly in Zambia, funded by USAID Zambia, Bloggers of Zambia an independent, not-for-profit enterprise commissioned and undertook a needs assessment survey in four (4) provinces of Zambia namely Lusaka, Southern, Eastern and Copperbelt. The specific districts in which the study was conducted were Kafue, Lusaka, Mazubuka, Livingstone, Chipata, Petauke, Kitwe and Luanshya. The needs assessment was meant to identify and capture digital security behaviours, trends, and needs of at-risk users among the identified target groups in Lusaka, Southern, Eastern and Copperbelt provinces. This needs assessment study provides a basis for establishment and tracking of the impact of the programme areas of interventions over a period of time. The primary objective of the needs assessment was to establish benchmarks for the project at the inception of implementation to establish the conditions against which future changes can be measured.
Methods: The process of identifying quantitative targets involved the use of the Zig Zag method where the result areas, outputs and activities are described. These quantitative targets were translated into questions in a questionnaire which was administered to 1200 respondents randomly sampled from the 4 provinces- Eastern, Southern, Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces, 8 districts (Livingstone, Mazabuka, Kitwe, Luanshya, Chipata, Petauke, Lusaka and Kafue). A total of 300 respondents were selected per province (200 coming from an urban digitally savvy district while 100 were from a rural- less digitally savvy district). Further, of the 1200 respondents, the research targeted 600 female respondents and 600 male respondents. The surveys were administered to the 1200 respondents randomly selected from within the eight districts from public places such as bus stops, shopping malls, teachers from schools, among others. A zig-zag method was used to select the respondents in the communities or zones in each district. In addition, Focus Groups Discussions (FGD) were conducted in triangulating the data and enhancing the quality and were used to qualify the findings from the quantitative survey and better understand the reason behind respondents’ feedback. The FGD conducted no more than 10 people in each district among the purposely selected civil society organisations.
The findings show immense opportunities for the project to develop holistic training and capacity building activities that must be underpinned by inclusive, collaborative and coordinated efforts at the community, district and provincial levels. This report, therefore, is a detailed presentation of
the process and outcomes of the needs assessment study. The report has been segmented into various components highlighted in the table contents.