Minister of Gender Victoria Kalima says Zambia is making strides in innovation and technology advancements.
Ms Kalima said technology and innovation if well harnessed are key to improving standards of living to the citizenry in a competitive world.
She noted that technology and innovation enhances economic efficiency and optimising the contribution of Zambians in economic growth and poverty reduction.
The Gender Minister said this during a ministerial side event at the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) which opened yesterday in New York.
The Ministerial side event focused on the theme, “Technology changing the world of work: how can technology and innovation be harnessed to accelerate women’s economic empowerment?
The Ministerial roundtable also focused on exchange of experiences, lessons learned and good practices on women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development.
Ms Kalima said government has mainstreamed gender empowerment into the plans of the Ministry of Science Technology and Vocation for the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goal number four on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education.
The Gender Minister further said the move will also promote lifelong learning opportunities required to eliminate gender parity in education.
She encourage participation of women and girls in the technology and innovation fields.
Ms Kalima said Zambia has fused in interventions meant to achieve economic growth through the reformation of regulatory frameworks for doing business.
She cited some of the regulatory frameworks as the introduction of an administrative way of cutting administrative burdens through the issuance of business licenses and permits.
Ms Kalima said other interventions include the establishment of one stop business registration centres meant to encourage more women to participate in business.
She said government is also promoting the establishment of economic zones, industrial parks and innovation hubs in order to broaden its capacity to meet empowerment demands for young people and women in Zambia.
She added that to complement this initiative government is providing various financing mechanisms such as the Youth Empowerment Fund and the Citizens Economic Empowerment (CEEC) to enable women have access to capital required to conduct businesses.
Ms Kalima further said that 30 percent of such programmes are being allocated to women while 70 percent is competed by both men and women.
She added that to supplement the initiatives, government has reviewed the Patent Act to protect and promote new innovations among youths and women who are adventurous by nature and have the capacity to multi task.
This year’s session of the Commission is addressing as its priority theme, “Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work”.
THE MINISTER LOOKS FINISHED , I HOPE SHE IS TAKING TO SUPPORT HER LIFE OTHERWISE HMMM…GBVA
Rwanda and Kenya have left our sleepy Zambia far behind in technology ,internet connectivity and attracting the godfathers of the tech industry.
It says a lot about our ICT seriousness or lack thereof that gender minister is the one to talk about ICT.
Our internet and cellular services are trash, and ZICTA is a dead horse milking ISPs and Zambians. Teaching of the sciences in schools is a joke as labs are not even considered as critical. Libraries are not up to date, and teachers across the board are demoralized.
This is wishful thinking rather making strides in innovation and technology advancement. Zambia is not an environment where any thing meaningful can come out.We have failed even to make simple things like needles and razors. If we are serious of making any strides in any thing, the starting point is to get ride of Lungu and the entire PF and undertake serious reforms across the board,because these people are running the country like a jungle. Do you expect anything good to come out of this jungle?