CSPR urges political will in fight against poverty, unemployment

CSPR urges political will in fight against poverty, unemployment
By Ernest Chanda
Sun 04 Mar. 2012, 11:58 CAT

CIVIL Society for Poverty Reduction says President Michael Sata should provide political will in the fight against poverty and unemployment. Commenting on President Sata's acknowledgement that poverty and unemployment were injustices to humanity, CSPR board chairman Partner Siabutuba urged the head of state to provide solutions.

"We would like to commend the President for publicly identifying poverty as one of the evils. We have been waiting for such statements coming in from the head of state, to try and key in statistics identifying poverty as one of the challenges bringing human dignity to its lowest level. With that realisation, we want to encourage the President to make sure that Zambia devises effective mechanisms and programmes that should be supported by effective policies to ensure that we can reduce poverty," he said yesterday in an interview.

"Poverty and unemployment are a source of a lot of other problems such as HIV and AIDS. So, can the President now saturate that realisation with action? This should be backed by effective government policy and a lot of political will. Technocrats have designed a lot documents on fighting poverty and unemployment. But what was lacking is political will to fight these things."

Siabutuba said the government should also give incentives to local investors who in turn would create jobs for the people.

Speaking at the World Day of Prayer at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka on Friday, President Sata said where there was poverty and unemployment, people were bound to get tempted.

"Now when you have unemployment and poverty, that's the greatest injustice and we cannot fight corruption without fighting the offshoot of corruption," said President Sata.

"In America, Europe unemployment is a campaign issue. Unfortunately in Africa poverty is a campaign issue."