“For World Bank supported programmes to have an impact, the job creation agenda should be prioritised,” said Dr. Um during a High-Level Meeting between the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the World Bank Group held Lusaka yesterday.
He also congratulated Zambia for making substantial progress in improving the annual funds absorption capacity for the current World Bank portfolio totaling over US$1.2 billion.
“In our recent assessment, we determined that your absorption capacity had improved to an average of 18% per annum,” said Dr. Um.
The recommended annual level is 20% for five year programmes.
Meanwhile FINANCE MINISTER FELIX MUTATI has said “it is important that the development programmes supported by the World Bank are consultative, jointly formulated, and willfully owned by the beneficiaries, implementing agencies, and the relevant arm of the World Bank Group in order to produce the expected impact on the livelihoods of the people in the targeted communities or sectors of interest.”
Mr. Mutati appealed to the World Bank to streamline the process of approving funds for disbursement in order to accelerate further the absorption of the US$1.2 billion of the current portfolio of projects being supported by the bank in Zambia.
“We are critically committed and have the political will to boost our technical competence in order to further increase our absorption capacity and ensure that the delivery of development to our people is not delayed unnecessarily,” said Mr. Mutati.
The Government of the Republic of Zambia was represented at the High-Level Meeting by General Education Minister Dr. DENIS WANCHINGA, Health Minister Dr. CHITALU CHILUFYA, Community Development Minister EMELINE KABANSHI, Agriculture Minister DORA SILIYA, and Finance Minister FELIX MUTATI. The Ministries of National Development Planning, Energy, Water Development, and Housing and Infrastructure were represented at permanent secretary and technical level.
The meeting was organized to explore the prospects of strengthening the implementation of World Bank supported projects in Zambia. During the meeting, the high-level delegates ventured into examining how portfolio transformation impact could be achieved through measures such as consultative selection of project sites and improvement in coordination of spatial decision making in the governmental system.
Among the thematic areas of interest for the meeting were health services improvement, education enhancement, girls’ education, women empowerment, agri-business, trade, livestock development, and animal health. Others were water resources development, improvement in rural connectivity, and access to electricity.
Both Dr. Um and Mr. Mutati described the meeting as a success.
If only we knew how to think so as to solve our problems.
*** DON’T GIVE THEM ANY MONEY UNTIL THEY RELEASE HH AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. THROW AWAY THEIR BEGGING BOWL. HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN ANY MONEY SO THAT THE PEOPLE CAN REMOVE THAT CANCER FROM OUR COUNTRY. DON’T FEED THE CANCER!
Lungu is pure unadulterated evil. His hands are dripping with blood of Mapenzi and Choongwa. He now wants to add the blood of HH onto his hands. The WB and IMF should not fund his murderous PFascist PFolice.
Priority is 2021.
I really don’t know what Lungu has done so far.
Africa is yet to master the art of cultivating a form of capitalism, purely our own.
I hope they understand what jobs world bank is referring to. Not DC or unnecessary employment in government but the jobs in our nascent private sector.
Key to job creation is the establishment of SMEs and a conducive environment for them to operate in. Mutati is on record of being the harshest Fin Minister in this regard and has failed to see how SMEs can help boost the economy. Take the exportation of maize, him and his MMD partner in crime Dora have created obstacles for small scale farmers to create cooperatives in order for small scale farmers to earn some money by creating a ridiculous 10percent tax, this only favours the already rich millers. Cut expenditure of bigwigs on govt payroll eg Zesco bosses who can walk away with over a million at time of retirement, those are cost saving measures and not killing SMEs.
We are desperate for funds…..another appeal to the international community that apparently we can do without.
So the world bsnk is actually saying that all these programs , plans, road building that we have been spruiking are not creating the number of jobs promised by the government in their pre election campaign
PF have ordered a stop to the arson attacks they started so as to frame HH when they rea?ised investors will see Zambia as unstable.
The fraud convict Lungu is acting like he has no recollection that he promised 500,000 jobs in 2015 and 1.5 million every year for the next 5 years.
How can we change when all our politicians are recycled from one party to another chasing personal benefit.
From mmd to pf to upnd to unip to eep they just go round in circles so there can be no new thinking or strategies.
We have a vicious circle, poverty breeds corruption breeds poverty ad infinitum. When will politicians put zambia first ,last and foremost. So frustrating for a nation that refuses to fulfill its undoubted potential despite the best efforts of the international community
@Masalamuso,
You are right. Its indeed a rat race.
So the question is:- How do we break this rat race? The answer is obviously by addressing the root-cause, i.e. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE and INFORMATION. To be specific, lack of ACCESS to basic relevant knowledge and info with which to partake in this Global village. e.g….
1. Mangoes cost nothing to grow in Zambia and mostly go to waste. On the other hand, there is good demand for mangoes in developed Countries. My family and I here in UK regularly buy sun-dried and packaged slices of mangoes from our local supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury, Lidl, Aldi, etc..). The interesting thing is these mangoes are grown, sun-dried and packaged from Burkina Faso – West Africa. So, lost sustainable jobs / entrepreneurship from Zambia.
2. We mine and…
Cont’d ….
2. We mine and happily sell our raw material Copper without any value addition all and we are not even embarrassed. This simply means we export jobs and China and the west obviously love us for that. Imagine how many sim-cards we can make and export from just ONE tonne of 99.94% of pure copper, Or how many electric switches, circuit breakers etc.. from one tonne of copper. We don’t ask why is ZAMEFA still an orphan and without any cousins? So, lost sustainable jobs / entrepreneurship from Zambia.
3. Copper is a wasting asset. One day it will run out This is a well-flogged subject and we learnt this as far back as primary school.. So, why is it not therefore common sense by now to attract and become masters of value addition in the region, be it at cottage-industry level or…
Cont’d …
… or at large-factory level, so much so that we make the likes Congo DR next door want to sell their Copper to us? So, again Lack of forward planning for sustainable jobs / entrepreneurship for our future generation.
“It is said that necessity is the mother of invention, but I say to you ‘refusing to accept the way things are’ is the mother of invention” Les Brown – Motivation speaker.
Brabus…….along with or as a form of education is exposure to other cultures away from zambia. Because of the isolation caused by poverty most small scale farmers are noy aware of what can be planted and grow.
We can plant we can grow but we are deficient in of markets and marketing.
Examples, as you will be aware in uk.. dried mushrooms (porcini from Italy), dried mango as you say, dried pineapple dried banana chips We dry fish , we grow tomatoes but we dont dry tomatoes, do pipo know that in australia dried tomatoes which come from italy are over $25..kg. we grow tomatoes but canned tomatoes in zambia come from italy and china.we have a canning factory in Lusaka. Sachets of tomato paste ,china
Somewhere else this story is attributed to IMF. Who is speaking to Zed?
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