By KETRA KALUNGA
Empower local authorities by implementing the decentralization plan that has been gathering dust on the shelves, Zambia Council For Social Development (ZCSD) urges the government.
Executive Director Leah Mitaba said Zambia has had a decentralization policy and implementation plan for the past two decades through which people’s aspirations could be achieved but has unfortunately been shelved.
Ms. Mitaba said in an interview that the country has lost an opportunity of taking development closer to the people by failing to implement the decentralization plan.
She said the country would quickly develop if councils were empowered because the role that the local government elected officials who include the mayors and councillors play in development couldn’t be overemphasized.
“So we believe that this could not have come at a better time than this and I think the first five years of the UPND are going to be interesting,” she said.
Ms. Mitaba said the pronouncement by the government would be progressive when the people through local authority begin to influence and determine the kind of development they would want to see in the respective areas.
Ms. Mitaba said in the same vein, ordinary people should influence and determine the dispensations of Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
She said the CDF should not be centralized neither should it come from Members of Parliament (MPs) but from the council to the people through the constituency development committees.
“MPs should focus on law making, on oversight whereas the local government official is the one that should be working closely with the people to implement the CFD,” she said.
