The main purpose of this paper is to document and discuss infrastructure gaps, investment needs, and policy challenges in improving infrastructure services, with an emphasis on the role of Public Private Partnerships to access needed resources for investments in the various sub-sectors for accelerated growth and poverty reduction in Zambia. Zambia has made substantial progress in extending some infrastructure services, including telecom and roads, to its citizens. However, service delivery in other areas, such as water and sanitation, and electricity has been poor. With Zambia's annual growth increasing and demand for infrastructure services escalating, infrastructure bottlenecks are becoming more acute. This paper is targeted at two main audiences: the first is the broader universe of policymakers, planners, regulators, and technical specialists directly concerned with the delivery of infrastructure services. For these readers, the note provides an overview of the physical, financial, social, and institutional conditions of the country that cut across subsectors. It compares Zambia's infrastructure performance in terms of access rates, affordability, quality, and financial viability of its services to those observed in comparable countries. The second and related audience is the authorities. The note provides them with a sense of the foregone growth opportunities stemming from policy imperfections, an assessment of investment needs for accelerated growth, and how public private partnership can play a role in resource mobilization for the investment needs. The paper takes stock of the most relevant infrastructure issues in the key sectors: energy, water and sanitation and telecommunications.
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