CDPP Urges Government To Set Measurable Growth Targets

by Pauline Ngozoh

The Center for the Democratisation of Public Policy (CDPP) has urged the Zambian Government to set job and skills training targets in the 2027 financial year for purposes of monitoring progress.

In addition, CDPP has urged the Zambian Government to set poverty reduction targets for the same financial year.

CDPP Executive Director, Kellys Kaunda, says the 2027 budget is about growth while previous budgets were about economic stabilization.

Kaunda notes that the first pillar in the 2027 budget is Growing the Economy, under which Government has singled out mining, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism as catalysts for growth.

Kaunda says CDPP welcomes, for instance, Government's initiative to establish the Farm Block Development Agency to provide governance, facilitate investment, and coordinate infrastructure development in the agricultural sector.

As this is the sector with the largest population group, CDPP says initiatives that seek to explore agriculture's various dimensions are needed for investment, productivity, job creation and the reduction of poverty.

Kaunda says the Zambian Government must be aggressive in its engagement with the private sector, civil society and the academia for purposes of teasing out the multiple opportunities that mining, tourism and manufacturing have to offer.

Beyond this, Kaunda says Government must continually explore effective strategies for the implementation of public policy.

"An average Zambian doesn't care about the total revenue or expenditure of the budget. They want to know whether this year, they will have a skill and a job that brings them steady income," Kaunda says.

Furthermore, Kaunda says whatever financial allocations Government makes are intended to facilitate private sector participation.

CDPP says Zambia has countless potential growth points for the economy that are far from being exploited. The organisation says these growth points do not even require Government funding but only recognition, a policy framework and strategy for implementation.

CDPP says the opportunities are so abundant, poverty in Zambia is not only unnecessary but an indictment against political leadership.