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Finance and National Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has appealed for innovative approaches for development financing to ensure progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Musokotwane said the government had put in place several interventions in various sectors to support attainment of the SDGs in Zambia.
In a speech read on his behalf by Permanent Secretary for Planning and Administration, Lois Mulube, he also paid tribute to the United Nations for supporting the government development aspirations, as outlined in Zambia’s Vision 2030.
“We appreciate the support rendered to the Government by the UN Family through the Fund in supporting budget and expenditure analysis.
“This included the facilitating stakeholder engagement, a study on implementation of the decentralization policy with a focus on fiscal decentralization, development of sector financing plans including the costing of key programmes,” Musokotwane said.
He said the UN family also supports the public expenditure reviews of the social protection sector whose findings fed into the development of the sector financing strategies in social protection and undertaking the 2022 Census of Population and Housing.
Speaking at a Joint SDG Fund event in Lusaka recently, United Nations Resident Coordinator Beatrice Mutali called for a wider stakeholder involvement in ensuring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Zambia.
Mutali said it was critical for stakeholders to work towards economic transformation for the benefit of the people of Zambia.
She said this in a speech read on her behalf by International Labour Organization (ILO) Director for Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique, George Okutho.
“We cannot continue with business as usual in our planning and implementation processes anymore but enhance efficiency and effectiveness of our interventions in addressing challenges to achieve the desired impact to drive the much-needed transformation to improve the lives of the people of Zambia,” Mutali said.
To promote alternative financing for sustainable development in the country, the UN in Zambia has through five of its agencies UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, ILO and UNECA supported capacity development of the government in planning processes and overcoming existing impediments to financing its national development priorities, including the SDGs.
This programme was intended to provide catalytic support to the government in advancing SDG implementation in the country.
Amongst other things, the Fund contributed to the migration of local authorities towards output-based budgeting (OBB) in all 116 districts, construction of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and toilets through local authorities.
The Fund also assisted Zambia in undertaking the 2022 Census and the Living Conditions Monitoring Survey.
The other interventions include COVID-19 Recovery Needs Assessment (CRNA) and preparation of the Eight National Development Plan, and Preparation of the Voluntary National Review (VNR) in 2020 and 2023.
It also supported the Rapid Integrated Assessment (RIA) of the Eighth National Development Plan, preparation of the Development Finance Assessment, National Budget Analyses as well as strengthening the capacity of Parliamentarians and Permanent secretaries in budget analysis.
Over 150 participants that included representatives of diplomatic missions, Government ministries, private Sector, policy analyst, Civil Society and youths attended the event that showcased key results achieved through the Zambia Integrated National Financing Framework for SDGs joint programme, which the UN has implemented since June 2020 to support sustainable development in Zambia.
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