Thu, 10 Aug 2017 11:12:59 +0000
By Oscar Malipenga
VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina has requested the Commonwealth to help Zambia in youth and women empowerment especially in skills development.
And Ms Wina appealed to the Commonwealth to renew its relevance amidst the restrictive financial resource base following closure of the Commonwealth Youth Centre in Zambia.
Ms Wina told Commonwealth secretary-general Patricia Scotland QC during a meeting at Cabinet Office yesterday that the 7th National Development Plan will target the plight of vulnerable women and children especially in rural areas and would be the main target of the five-year development plan.
Speaking when Ms Scotland paid a courtesy call on her at her office, Ms Wina said Zambia had made a lot of progress towards rights and empowerment of women and youths, including elimination of child, early and forced marriage.
“Government is intensifying on giving interventions to further reduce the huge gender inequality in school participation and completion,” she said.
Ms Wina however mentioned that Zambia had not done well in harnessing the potential of women who comprised half of the national population.
She said President Edgar Lungu has made great strides in not only championing for women’s rights but taking practical steps in appointing women to positions of leadership.
“However, there is need to adopt laws and policies that empower women and enhance their leadership roles and equitable participation in governance, politics and in the labour force,” Ms Wina said.
Earlier, Ms Wina assured Ms Scotland of her government’s full support and cooperation during her tenure of office.
She reaffirmed Government’s commitment to the core values and principles of the Commonwealth as enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter.
She said Zambia had mainstreamed the said values and principles into domestic legislation, policies and procedures.
“Zambia is looking forward to participating in the forthcoming CHOGM 2018 to be held in London, United Kingdom in April, 2018,” Ms Wina said.
She said Zambia was looking forward to the discourse at the upcoming CHOGM 2018 that could among other issues come up with practical contribution to deal with threatened global governance and good neighbours.
And delivering her remarks in response to Ms Wina’s request, Ms Scotland said she was touched following Zambia’s desire to have the women and youths empowered through skills development.
She said the Commonwealth would work together with the Zambian government to see how best it could put the common to wealth.
Ms Scotland called for increased laws, processes and regulations among the Commonwealth countries in order to make it easy to inter-trade.
She observed that Zambia was not spared from the effects of climate change on a daily basis and pledged to help reduce the effects.
Ms Scotland said better response to the effects of climate change was empowering the women and youths.
“Accelerating the response to climate change is through empowering women in governance,” she said.
Ms Scotland said empowering women and youths would help Zambia combat reverse and combat the effects of climate change.
