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The government has dismissed reports that international partners have withdrawn funding from social protection programmes in the country.
Community Development and Social Services Minister, Doreen Mwamba, said since the UPND government took office in 2011, it enjoys warm relations with all the cooperating partners.
Mwamba in a statement issued in Lusaka on Saturday advised beneficiaries of social protection programmes to ignore the articles from the past.
She said the articles which were posted on various social media platforms were emanating from a dark period for the social protection sector in 2018 when cooperating partners withdrew their support to the sector.
“This situation was rectified and since the new dawn government took office in 2021, we enjoy warm relations with all our cooperating partners,” Mwamba stated.
She said the relations were based on mutual respect and shared vision to uplift the living standards of the vulnerable in Zambia.
Mwamba applauded the cooperating partners for their quick response to the national emergency, and thanked them for rendering US$206.7million towards the Emergency Cash Transfers.
“Our beneficiaries currently stand as 1, 31, 101 households on the regular Social Cash Transfer in 116 districts, and 726, 516 households on the Drought Emergency Cash Transfer in 84 Districts,” she highlighted.
Additionally, 226, 054 households on the Price Shock Transfers in 32 Districts and 492,000 farmer households on the Food Security Pack (FSP) programme in 116 Districts.
The Minister urged the over 11.3 million beneficiaries of the social protection programme to ignore the reports and all other stories that would attempt to derail their attention from partnering with the government in uplifting their livelihood.
“Government will continue to implement these social protection programmes with the support, technical and financial of our cooperating partners,” Mwamba said.
Recent Social media reports suggested that cooperating partners had withdrawn their funding to social protection programmes due to abuse of the funds.
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