By Cecilia Chiluba 
Minister of Finance and National Planning says Zambia’s Eighth National Human Development Report shows significant improvement in the Human Development Index.
Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane said this reflects an improvement in the welfare of the citizens, which is testament that government policies and strategies are sound.
Dr. Musokotwane noted that the Report underscores that the path to sustained economic growth must include investment in renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, effective water resource management, and early warning systems.
He was speaking in a speech read for him by Permanent Secretary Planning and Administration Prudence Kaoma, during the launch of the Report in Lusaka, under the theme; “Dialing back: overcoming the threat multipliers of climate change and variability.”
Dr. Musokotwane stated that the Report emphasizes that climate resilience is development resilience.
He observed that the Report serves as a reminder of the challenges the country has been faced with in the development journey especially in the last 3 years, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the drought experienced in the 2023/2024 rain season.
Dr. Musokotwane recalled that the pandemic negatively impacted all economic sectors particularly health and education,while the drought reduced the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth from the projected 6.6% to 2.3% and caused a maize deficit of over 2.1 million metric tonnes.
“To this end, government is implementing policies and measures aimed at ensuring the country rebounds from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2023/2024 drought.”
“Among the measures to support critical components of human development which include increased access to quality education by implementing the free education policy from nursery to secondary education. to improve teacher-pupil ratio, government recruited over 35,000 teachers between 2022- 2024,” he added.
He also emphasized that public policy must embrace resilient socio-economic, spatial and environmental planning for Zambia to attain its vision of becoming a prosperous middle-income country by 2030.
Amos Sikaonga