President Edgar Lungu has reiterated that Zambia will continue to foster and deepen strategic partnerships with the international community to consolidate mutual ties and cooperation.

And President Lungu says the government will also continue to engage respective countries through deliberate enhancement of cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

ZANIS reports that the Head of State said this when he received letters of credentials from Rwanda new High Commissioner to Zambia Amandin Rugira, and Germany Ambassador Anne Wagner-Mitchell at State House in Lusaka today.

“…I wish to re-affirm the Zambian government’s continued commitment to enhanced relations and cooperation, at bilateral and multilateral levels, with both Rwanda and Germany, for the mutual benefit of the people of our countries, ‘’ said President Lungu.

The Head of State noted that Zambia and the Federal republic of Germany have enjoyed outstanding bilateral relations for many years, as reflected in the significant support accorded to Zambia over 50 years.

President Lungu further noted that the areas of cooperation and focus have been water and sanitation, good governance, renewable energy, agriculture, and nutrition, which are of utmost importance to the people of Zambia.

President Lungu praised the German government for the continued generous support accorded to Zambia’s socio-economic development.

“The German government continues to assist Zambia bilaterally, and as part of the European Union (EU), in time of great need. This includes helping Zambian farmers mitigate the negative effects of drought, the social cash transfer programme, the renewed scaling up of nutrition efforts of the national food and nutrition commission and importantly, Zambia’s COVID-19 response,” added President Lungu.

The Head of State has since called for increased German investment in Zambia following the impressive establishment of the huge commercial farming project by Amatheon Agri, in Mumbwa District of Central province which President Lungu has since visited.

Germany’s Ambassador Anne-Wagner Mitchel, said her country remains committed to enhancing bilateral relations and cooperation to help Zambia foster her development process.

Dr Wagner-Mitchel stressed that her country will continue to support Zambia’s tourism sector, water and sanitation, food security and conservation, and renewable energy.

“ Germany’s friendship is also evidenced in her continued support as seen in her response to drought and climate change and commitment of over 550 million Kwacha for Zambia’s COVID19 response,” Ambassador Wanger –Mitchel stated.

While praising Zambia for her warm hospitality, the German envoy noted that the country is an anchor of peace and heaven for refugees in the region and hoped that Zambia can continue to play a significant role in promoting peace and security.

Dr Wagner-Mitchel assured President Lungu that Germany will continue to support the agriculture sector and assured a strong presence at the next Agritech exhibition in Chisamba, whose edition this year could not be held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said Germany is keen to observe Zambia’s next general elections.

And President Lungu said Zambia admires the significant strides that Rwanda has made in Information Communication Technology (ICT) and other key sectors of the economy.

The president said Zambia looks forward to working closely with Rwanda to finalise negotiations on the draft agreements on cooperation in double taxation, agriculture, visa exemption, immigration, education and tourism, among other areas.

President Lungu said Zambia looks forward to hosting the 7th session of the Zambia-Rwanda joint permanent commission of cooperation, to advance the collaboration between the two countries as soon as the COVID -19 pandemic situation allows.

He further assured that Zambia looks forward to participating in the forthcoming commonwealth summit in Kigali to be held next year.

“At the multilateral level, we look forward to working closely with the republic of Rwanda to advance, among others, the United Nations’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development and the African Union’s agenda 2063, in order to create the “Africa we want”, President Lungu pointed out.

Rwanda High Commissioner, Amandin Rugira said his country appreciates the existing bilateral relations between the two countries and pledged to strengthen them for the benefit of the two peoples.

The envoy thanked President Lungu for the land given to Rwanda to build offices for its mission and hoped the size of the land could be increased.

And President Lungu hoped that Germany and Rwanda will collaborate with Zambia and the rest of the world to help combat the COVID 19 pandemic which has caused socio-economic disruptions globally.

PF Media Director, Sunday Chanda says people underplaying the negative impact of COVID 19 and climate change on the economy are not up to date with reality.

Speaking when he featured on ‘Policy, Money and Power’ radio programme on Money fm, Mr. Chanda said 2020 has been very challenging when it
comes to the economic performance of the country.

He said as a result of COVID 19, the country experienced drastic reduction in revenue collection and pushed expenditure up because most businesses were forced to close and in some instances depended on government for survival.

“When you have drastic reductions in revenue collection and you have businesses trying to survive in the wake of COVID 19 and in some instances depending on government for survival the economy suffers. We had some businesses that closed down due to COVID 19 and workers were laid off or put on half salary, so anyone underplaying the negative impact of COVID 19 on the economy is not up to date with reality,” Mr.Chanda said.

“2020 has been a very challenging year for Zambia and the globe at large. Our economy being commodity-driven, means whenever we have low copper prices we see a downward spiral in revenue and we see the Kwacha losing value. That is why PF has said to itself that we diversify the economy and bring other sectors on the table so that we
stop depending on copper,” He said.

And Mr. Chanda said even in the midst of harsh economic conditions the PF government has remained steadfast to ensure that it overcomes all the challenges and improves the lives of Zambians.

“Some of the key factors we have seen has been a key policy shift. We have seen the easing of doing business, we have seen the country promoting domestic as well as foreign investment, for instance, matters of trade and just setting up a company you can register a company with PACRA within 24hrs and 48hrs. The business environment in the
the country allows for the private sector to thrive without any challenges and this is commendable,” Mr. Chanda said.

Meanwhile, Mr.Chanda said Zambia is poised to be a net exporter of electricity in the region and also ultimately end load shedding in the country by March next year.

“The country experienced worst droughts and had a negative bearing on the economy and the massive load shedding we are experiencing today is as a result of massive drought and poor rainfall patterns the country experienced in 2015. We still have load shedding today but by March next year it will be a thing of the past.

The Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia(EFZ) has said that Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) must be withdrawn and a family-centred sexuality education approach that secures Zambia’s posterity must be quickly drafted.

In a statement released to the media EFZ said that while it is observed that in the early process of piloting the CSE programme in Zambia, direct references to sexual orientations such as homosexuality were resisted by participants and therefore removed, EFZ maintains that a fundamentally liberal ideological thread is identifiable and EFZ is concerned about the subtle and pervasive integration of this into other subject matter.

Below is the full Statement

SUSPEND IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION OF CSE UNTIL ALL STAKEHOLDERS ACHIEVE BROAD CONSESUS -EFZ

EFZ FOLLOW-UP COMMUNIQUE ON THE COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION (CSE) PROGRAM ISSUED BY THE EFZ BOARD CHAIRPERSON- BISHOP PAUL MUSUSU

MONDAY, 28TH SEPTEMBER, 2020
Proverbs 11:14

“A nation falls through a lack of guidance, but victory comes through the counsel of many.” (ISV)

A representative team of the EFZ Advocacy Group, Protect Zambian Children Coalition, made a fervent presentation to the Ministry of General Education, on Thursday, 24th September 2020, re-enforcing the message of the EFZ Press Statement (18th September, 2020) on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), appealing for the suspension of the program, which has already been widely introduced in our schools in Zambia.

Therefore, we wish to express deep gratitude to the Minister of Education Hon. Dennis Musuku Wanchinga, MP, who took time to hear and accept our submissions against the continued implementation of the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program in its current format in schools across the country.

We are also grateful that Hon. Wanchinga took the opportunity to include the Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs, Hon. Rev. Godfridah Sumaili, MP, who joined us in the engagement accompanied by the Permanent Secretary from Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs, Rev. Dr Howard Sikwela.

Further, we are grateful that following our initial presentation Hon. Wanchinga, arranged a meeting with a team of his senior technocrats at the Ministry to discuss the background and context of the CSE programme with us.

As we reflect on the rich interaction with the Ministry of General Education, we have taken special note that there are other implementors of CSE, such us specialized Civil Society Organisation (CSOs). We particularly note that the majority of these CSOs are heavily funded by foreign organisations, whose track record is known and skewed towards liberal ideologies that have long threatened Africa’s moral, cultural and religious values.

Numerous parents in our churches have raised concerns regarding the unfettered access these CSOs have to our communities, as they target out-of- school young people with a dedicated CSE curriculum distinct from the school-based one. A good number of CSOs offer a range of Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRH& R) services that parents feel equally need fresh scrutiny and reassessment by from key stakeholders.

This is against the backdrop of recalling that some known funders of these programmes have in the past been named and undeniably linked, for instance, to the procurement of hundreds of illegal abortions, as a case in point, in one of Zambia’s provinces a number of years ago.

While it is observed that in the early process of piloting the CSE programme in Zambia, direct references to sexual orientations such as homosexuality were resisted by participants and therefore removed, we maintain that a fundamentally liberal ideological thread is identifiable and we are concerned about the subtle and pervasive integration of this into other subject matter. CSE and/or SRH & R cannot be pursued so wantonly at the expense of the moral, cultural, religious and legal standing of our country.

Therefore, CSE must be withdrawn and let us quickly return to the drawing board for the drafting of a family-centred sexuality education approach that secures Zambia’s posterity, more assuredly.

In this respect, we are glad that a number of CSOs in their latest Press Release do acknowledge the need to engage in wide consultations with key stake holders such as parents, religious leaders traditional authorities, parliamentarians, and many others, who were left out in the initial Pilot conducted in three districts of Eastern province and the eventual roll out that followed, alongside the signing of the East and Southern Africa (ESA) Commitment.

Therefore, we reiterate that CSE in its current design remains a fundamental threat to the well-being of our children, adolescents and threatens the moral fibre, cultural and religious standing of our country.

We take strong exception to the assertion by some CSOs that objections advanced against CSE are allegedly unfounded, ill intended and not evidenced based. How can the voices of parents, we represent and to whom the children belong, be ill intended? Can CSOs claim more concern for the welfare of children that the parents who have raised them? We put it on record that some of the parents who have voiced concerns are employees of the ministry of education.

We stand on firm ground with evidence from independent reviewers demonstrating a high failure rate of school-based CSE programmes internationally. We insist that well corroborated evidence must inform policy.

While it is acknowledged that Reproductive health related problems such as unwanted pregnancies, early marriages or HIV and other challenges facing adolescents may be closely linked to “insufficient knowledge about sexuality and reproduction”, it is a category error to claim that CSE is the ‘sliver’ bullet solution, especially in the manner it is currently couched, locally and globally.
It is a known fact that this remains contestable space by families world-wide and that cannot be ignored.

Let us sit around the table

Zulu et al (2019) in a study done in Nyimba, found that:

“CSE had limited legitimacy in the community and was met with resistance from teachers tasked with its’ implementation. In order to enhance ownership to the CSE program, local concerns about the contents of the curriculum and the parent-teacher role dilemma must be taken into consideration.”

The Church, like other stake holders, is equally concerned about the rise of teenage pregnancies, sexual immorality, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) including HIV, child marriages, and other vices. Our long standing commitment to continue making contribution towards support of all national efforts aimed at reducing or eliminating the vices speaks for itself, by virtue of the significant programmes currently undertaken in church run institutions as well as in some congregation-based programmes.

It is also our intention to engage the Ministry of Health directly, seeing they are implementing the other key Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRH&R) programmes where similar concerns around wanton provision of contraceptives, and abortions to adolescents in various facilities around the nation is being offered.

We await a final word from the Ministry of General Education and the Ministry of National Guidance and Religious Affairs on the way forward on the subject at hand.

Proverbs 11:14- “A nation falls through a lack of guidance, but victory comes through the counsel of many.” (ISV)
May God bless our great nation!

Signed: ————————————–
Bishop Paul E. Mususu- EFZ Board Chairperson