MUSOKOTWANE SEEKS HELP TOWARDS DROUGHT DISASTER
FINANCE and National Planning Minister, Situmbeko Musokotwane has made a clarion call to all stakeholders to broadly and effectively respond to the current situation of the drought, which was declared as a national disaster last Wednesday.
President Hakainde Hichilema declared the current drought situation as a national disaster and emergency.
In his reaction to the declaration, Dr Musokotwane suggested that stakeholders can urgently respond to this emergency through short-term and long-term measures.
Dr Musokotwane guided that these measures must include realignment of budgets, avoiding wastage, water harvesting and building back better, among others.
He made these suggestions yesterday in Lusaka at the first 2024 National Development Coordinating Committee (NDCC) meeting.
“The disaster declaration should take priority our programming in 2024 and is, therefore, a clarion call to action to all stakeholders including the Government, the private sector and cooperating partners.
“It also should also include churches, traditional leaders, civil society organisations and farmers unions, to act to mitigate the potential devastating consequences on critical sectors across the country,” Dr Musokotwane said.
The minister is troubled that sectors such as agriculture, water and energy, will be negatively affected while national food security and livelihood of millions of Zambians is also at risk.
Dr Musokotwane is aware that this will impact negatively on Zambia’s economic development programme.
Speaking earlier, Vice Chairperson of the NDCC, Patrick Kangwa, noted that the primary focus of the meeting was to review progress on programme implementation for the 2023 fourth quarter and consideration of the 2024 work plans.
Dr Kangwa, who is also Secretary to the Cabinet, explained that this would enable the committee reach consensus on how it would be implemented going forward.
“NDCC meetings are crucial as they deliberate on matters pertaining to development planning, monitoring and evaluation and budgeting, including matters raised by cluster advisory groups and provincial development coordinating committees.
“As we leverage partnerships to drive our development agenda, we want to emphasise that stakeholder participation is a crucial aspect of Zambia’s development agenda,” he said.