GOVERNMENT has made positive strides towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says ministry of national planning permanent secretary Chola Chabala.
Mr Chabala said the strides on the key pillars were favourable and were likely to get better by 2021.
He told ZANIS in Kitwe, that 21 per cent had been achieved so far on the pillar on reducing development inequalities at the close 2018.
“About 23 per cent on the governance pillar has been achieved while 46 per cent on reducing development inequalities and 40 per cent on Economic diversification and job creation has also been achieved,” he said.
In 2015 Zambia appended her signature to the United Nation’s Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) whose objective was to gear governments towards sustainable development via eight main objectives to reduce poverty, hunger and child mortality.
Others are to improve access to primary education, promote gender equality and maternal health, combat major endemic diseases, preserve the environment and set up a partnership for development.
It was among the leading reasons for government to create the ministry of National Development and Planning whose sole objective was to coordinate the setting of the national vision, goals and development priorities and engender consensus among various stakeholders.
It was also the ministry’s responsibility to facilitate the preparation of long and medium term national development plans to promote economic diversification and rapid socio-economic growth and development, among others.
And Mr Chabala has said that the constrained fiscal space could affect the achievement of the Seventh National Development Plan (7NDP) on which the SDGS were aligned to by about 86 per cent.
To overcome this challenge, he said, government was engaging the participation of the private sector in the efforts towards the achievement of the 7th National Development Plan as well as the SDGs as they have more impetus to the achievement of the plan and the goals.
Government under the Ministry was also mobilizing the climate change funds, which Mr Chabala said would also be an alternative source of funds to help towards the attainment of the SNDP and the SDGs.
He said the private sector could help bridge the financial gaps from what government was providing.
And Mr Chabala said government would not want to compromise on the fixed target of 2021 for the SDGs but would ensure efficiency and effective implementation and subsequent attainment of the set Goals in the 7National Development Plan.
Despite the external shocks and the fiscal challenges that Zambia was facing, he said the ministry still believed that significant policy adjustments and full participation of the private sector would be key to the attainment of the projected development and successful implementation of the 7th National Development Plan.
