7th development plan key to poverty eradication – CSPR

Wed, 17 May 2017 10:09:13 +0000

By CHINTU MALAMBO

THE Seventh National Development Plan that Government will launch this month is key to the alleviation of the high poverty levels in the country, Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) executive director Patrick Nshindano has said.

Mr Nshindano said that CSPR had been coordinating civil societies into the new development plan from December last year, where a shadow plan of the civil society perspective of the SNDP was launched.

He said that CSPR had partnered with the Ministry of National Development Planning, following the approval of the SNDP by Government through the Cabinet.

“Following Government’s approval of the Seventh national development Plan, CSPR decided to partner with the Ministry of National Development Planning to try and build the capacity of civil society organisations to monitor their plan,” he said.

Mr Nshindano said that it was important that citizens were aware of the contents of the SNDP and were involved in the monitoring of the plan.

He said that the national development plan was a critical document for directing the development agenda.

Mr Nshindano said the plan had a strong pillar that focused on the reduction of poverty levels in the country.

“The development plan has a very strong pillar that has to do with the reduction of poverty which is very critical. Zambia is one of the countries with the highest poverty levels especially in rural areas,” he said.

Mr Nshindano said that Government indicated that it was developing an implementation plan which was going to be the driver of the SNDP.

He said that it was through the SNDP that CSOs will be able to actively monitor the planning process.