COMMENT - A success for whom?
‘FNDP was a success’
By Joseph Mwenda and Mutale Kapekele
Tue 08 Feb. 2011, 04:01 CAT
WORLD Bank Zambia country manager Dr Kapil Kapoor says the Fifth National Development Plan was a success as evidenced by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which he said was higher than estimated.
And the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) says the success of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) will be dependent on
sufficient domestic resources and
political will.
In an interview following the launch of the SNDP, Dr Kapoor said it was important for the government and the private sector to coordinate their efforts in ensuring that the SNDP was implemented.
“I do not agree that the FNDP failed. I do not think so. I think the plan actually worked well. As the finance minister said, I think Zambia’s economic performance during the Fifth National Development Plan has actually been quite good. The economy has grown by about six per cent every year,” Dr Kapoor said.
“I think the challenge going ahead is making sure that the SNDP plan is actually implemented. I think the challenge also is to try and increase growth to about seven per cent every year and make sure that the people of Zambia benefit in that growth.”
And CSPR executive director Patrick Mucheleka warned that the SNDP would not achieve its goals and aspirations unless the government strengthened its implementing departments and systems.
Mucheleka said the success of the SNDP was dependant on sufficient domestic resources and political will.
“There was a lot of misappropriation of funds as well as irregularities in the systems and structures during the implementation period of the FNDP,” Mucheleka said. “The weakness in the FNDP was inadequate funding to key sectors of the implementation process.”
Mucheleka said unless implementing institutions were strengthened, the country would not be able to achieve the goals and aspirations of the SNDP.
He said although the FNDP was a good plan on paper, it was disappointing that its programs failed to reduce poverty which now stands at 64 per cent.
Mucheleka said for the SNDP to succeed, it should ‘talk’ to the budget expenditure framework and the vision 2030.
The government says the focus of the SNDP, whose theme is ‘Sustained Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction’, would be on deliberate interventions that would promote the creation of decent jobs and skills development particularly for young people.
Labels: CSPR, FNDP, KAPIL KAPOOR, World Bank
Read more...
COMMENT - 'grow the economy'- translation: let the foreign mining companies pillage Zambia's resources without the Zambian economy or people benefiting from it. The truth is that Zambia cannot develop or grow under this current neoliberal, oligarchy driven system.
Govt blames FNDP hiccups on high lending rates
By Mutale Kapekele
Mon 07 Feb. 2011, 04:00 CAT
THE government says high levels of lending rates and the limited availability of long-term finance were the major constraints to growth, particularly for small to medium-scale enterprises during the implementation period of the Fifth National Development Plan.
The country aspired to
grow the economy by seven per cent during the FNDP implementation period but only managed an average of six per cent with the exception of 2010 which recorded 7.1 per cent.
According to the executive summary of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), the implementation of envisaged fiscal outlays also proved to be a challenge during the FNDP period, due to shortfalls in domestic revenues and grants from cooperating partners.
“Over the FNDP period, current expenditures were actually higher than domestically generated revenues. As a result, fiscal deficit averaged 1.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the period against the FNDP average target of 1.7 per cent,” the government reports.
“Domestic debt increased by 25.9 per cent to K10, 455.22 billion as at end of December 2009 from K7,720.42 billion at the beginning of the FNDP period. However, as a proportion of GDP, domestic debt fell from 20 per cent in 2006 to 16.2 per cent in 2009.”
The government states that the labour force increased by 10 per cent from 4.9 million in 2005 to 5.4 million in 2008 while total employment grew by 26.4 per cent to 5.2 million in 2008 from 4.1 million in 2005 with male employment in the formal sector accounting for 71 per cent compared to 29 per cent for females.
The government reports that the country’s current account deficit averaged 4.8 per cent of GDP compared to 11.3 per cent of GDP during the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and in 2009 it further narrowed to 3.2 per cent of GDP.
The government further states that the total national external debt increased by 16.1 per cent from US$2,014.4 million in 2006 to US$3,407.3 million at end 2009 “on account of a higher increase in private and parastatal debt of over 100 per cent from US $1, 084.0 million in 2006 to US $2,250.4 million in 2009 while the public debt increased by 24.4 per cent from US$930 million in 2006 to US$1, 156.9 million in 2009.”
The government states that the country’s per income increased from US$680 in 2006 to an estimated US$970 in 2009, only slightly below the lower middle-income threshold of US$995.
Labels: FNDP, LENDING RATES
Read more...
Rupiah admits FNDP’s flawed implementation
By Mutale Kapekele and Joseph Mwenda
Sat 05 Feb. 2011, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has admitted that implementation of the Fifth National Development Plan was negatively affected by poor coordination and weak linkages within government departments.
The President said this at the launch of the K132 trillion rich Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), which will run from 2011 to 2015.
President Banda said in preparing the SNDP, the government took note of the lessons learnt from the previous development plans and experience which indicated that many programs were only partially funded and could not, therefore, be completed due to limited resources.
“It was noted that poor coordination and weak linkages among various government units and other stakeholders implementing similar programmes adversely affected performance of the plan,” President Banda said.
“This is notwithstanding, positive achievements that were recorded during the period. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by about six percent on average during the plan period amid the unprecedented difficulties in the global economy as a result of the global financial and economic crisis. However, this growth was below the seven percent in the FNDP. Overall poverty fell from 73 percent to 64 percent though rural poverty remained high.”
President Banda said both domestic and foreign private investment grew and Zambia’s competitiveness continued to improve during the implementation period of the FNDP.
He said through the SNDP, the government would continue to focus on investing in infrastructure, with a bias towards energy, road, railway and air transportation, human resource development in areas of education skills, health, water and sanitation.
“During the period, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty is expected to decline from 37 per cent in 2006 to about 29 per cent in 2015 while rural poverty is expected to decline from 77 per cent in 2006 to 50 per cent in 2015,” he said.
“The SNDP will also continue to address the structural bottlenecks in the economy in order to accelerate socio-economic transformation for prosperity. Solutions in the plan aim at creating employment, raising average per capita income levels and further improving Zambia’s competitiveness.”
President Banda also said the private sector would remain the engine of growth and development.
“In that regard, I emphasise that the private sector remains a key partner in Zambia’s development and, therefore, needs to actively participate in the implementation of the plan,” he said.
“The private sector should lead the growth and government will provide the atmosphere for you to do this.”
He said the projected resource envelope for the SNDP was K132 trillion, which would be met by K103 trillion of domestic resources, and K29 trillion, or 22 per cent, from external assistance and external borrowing.
“However, there is need for further strengthening of domestic revenue collections and public expenditure,” President Banda said.
“I, therefore, urge the minister of to give serious attention to implementation of revenue measures as well as measures aimed at strengthening public expenditure.”
Earlier, finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane said the FNDP was successful owing to the economic growth of an average of six percent and successes in the mining sector.
“The performance of the FNDP was very good,” Dr Musokotwane said.
“During that period, the economy turned around with an average growth rate of six per cent. During that same period, more than 700,000 tonnes of copper was produced per annum and indications show that we could hit two million per annum in the next five to six years. This is 10 times more than what was produced in 2010.”
Dr Situmbeko also said the FNDP led to successes in all sectors and raised employment levels.
Labels: FNDP, RUPIAH BANDA, SIXTH NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Read more...
CSPR disputes poverty reduction statistics
By By Margaret Mtonga
Wed 06 Jan. 2010, 14:50 CAT
Low funding has negatively affected most of the targets for the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) in the year ending 2009, Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) executive director Patrick Mucheleka has said.
And Mucheleka said the recently released Central Statistics Office monthly (CSO) bulletin that poverty levels had reduced in the country was not the true picture on the ground. In an interview, Mucheleka said that that prioritization of resource allocation by government has not been given its due attention.
“Almost all government funded FNDP programmes have seriously suffered from poor funding. In addition, such funding is disbursed late making the realization of current and future work programmes very difficult,” he said.
Mucheleka said other than poor funding, weak institutional capacity and in some cases, unqualified human resource were the major factors leading to weak institutional capacity. He said where qualified staff exist, their performance has tended to be sub-optimal, due to low morale resulting from poor incentives.
“Weak administrative capacity is essentially at all levels, national, provincial, district and sub-district. One offshoot of the weak administrative capacity is poor monitoring, evaluation and coordination of the FNDP interventions. Consequently, this has been a recipe for duplication and inefficient resource utilization,” he said.
Mucheleka also said there was a widespread fragmentation of the FNDP efforts and projects due to inadequate government leadership.
“The absence of an effective monitoring and evaluation in the various sectors is one of the greatest yawning gaps facing FNDP interventions in Zambia. An effective monitoring and evaluation system needs to be established in all sectors among other things to ensure development and promotion of appropriate and quality indicators for impact assessment of FNDP interventions,” Mucheleka said.
Meanwhile CSPR said that the current release by the Central Statistics office (CSO) that poverty levels had reduced was not the true picture on the ground.
“It does not make sense to say that the poverty levels have reduced in the country and yet Zambians were wallowing in abject poverty,” he said.
Mucheleka said these statistics they revealed were levels that are carried out from revised methodologies of measuring poverty according to the international standards.
Labels: CSPR, FNDP, PATRICK MUCHELEKA, POVERTY
Read more...
Energy sector posts poor results under 2006-2010
By Fridah Zinyama
Thu 17 Dec. 2009, 04:00 CAT
GOVERNMENT has stated that the structure of growth during the period 2006-2010 has been oriented to a few sectors which have reduced their contribution towards the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP)’s goal of employment creation.
And the energy sector performance in the period under review period was unsatisfactory with growth registered at negative 1.2 per cent as at end of 2008.
In a recent report released by the Ministry of Finance to review the performance of the FNDP for the period 2006-2010, government stated that there were low linkages between the earnings from those sectors that had registered growth with those such as agriculture that house the largest number of poor people.
“The low level of economic diversification in Zambia significantly contributes to this state of affairs,” the report indicated.
It further observed that the poor performance in other sectors of the economy had contributed to the increase in poverty levels in the country.
“Poverty levels in Zambia have remained high at 64 per cent of the total population,” the report stated.
“This has been mostly due to the increase in the incidence of poverty in the rural population where levels rose from 78 per cent in 2004 to 80 per cent in 2006.”
Government stated that urban poverty reduced marginally but the high levels of poverty had been compounded by the poor performance of the agriculture sector which employed the majority of people in rural areas.
And the report stated that the energy sector performed poorly mainly because of failure in meeting targets for new electricity generation capacity, inappropriate pricing for energy, high oil importation bill, insufficient processing and storage as well as establishment of strategic fuel reserves.
Labels: ENERGY, FNDP
Read more...
Govt engages consultant to review FNDP
Written by Nchima Nchito
Friday, February 13, 2009 7:49:04 AM
Finance permanent secretary for the planning division Berlin Msiska on Wednesday revealed that the government has
engaged an independent consultant to review the fifth national development plan (FNDP).
During a mid-term review of the FNDP hosted by the civil society for poverty reduction (CSPR), Msiska said government was committed to making the FNDP a success.
“The review process is in line with the monitoring and evaluation framework of the plan and it is our hope that the recommendations will help us draw lessons on how the FNDP shall be implemented in the remaining period of its existence,” he said.
Msiska added that the report had reached an advanced stage and would be availed to all stakeholders to elicit their input.
“Government considers this an important process because the findings from the mid-term review are expected to feed into the formulation of the sixth national development plan which like the FNDP will be one of the medium term plans by which Zambia wishes to achieve the goals of the vision 2030,” he said.
Msiska further said the initiative taken by the CSPR to conduct a mid-term review of the FNDP was commendable.
“This approach is a good demonstration of how the civil society and indeed any other stakeholder can collaborate with government in finding solutions to matters whose objective is common,” said Msiska.
And CSPR acting executive director Saul Banda said there was need for consistency in commitments and pledges that government had made.
“By not consistently reflecting these existing commitments, the FNDP may lose the opportunities to improve its pro-poor focus,” he said.
Banda also asked the government to open more space for civil society organisations to engage in policy debate as well and service delivery.
Labels: DEVELOPMENT, FNDP
Read more...
State calls for increased monitoring of government projects
Posted on May 5th, 2008
Finance and National Planning Permanent Secretary Mbikusita Lewanika has called for increased monitoring and evaluation of government projects to realize intended goals in line with the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP). Dr. Lewanika says monitoring and evaluation is a powerful public management tool that can be used by government to achieve intended results.
He was speaking in Kafue today when he officiated at a two-day workshop dubbed, “Results Based Monitoring and Evaluation.” Dr. Lewanika observed that with globalization, there is need for monitors to be responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders in the quest for good governance, accountability and transparency in order to realise tangible results.
He challenged the Monitors and Evaluators to move away from the traditional way of monitoring, to new results-based approaches because government through the FNDP is in a hurry to develop the country by ensuring that projects are completed on time.
Dr. Lewanika hoped that the workshop participants would now be in the position to design and build results-based monitoring and evaluation systems at the end of the workshop.
And passing a vote of thanks, Ministry of Finance and National Planning Finance Manager Mumba Chanda commended Government for organizing the workshop.
Mr. Chanda urged his colleagues to put the gained knowledge into practice because government is spending huge sums of moneys in impacting knowledge to its employees.
The workshop has been organized by the Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Programme (PEMFA) under the Ministry of Finance and National Planning.
The two-day workshop has attracted Principal Government Officers from the Ministry of Finance, Zambia National Tender Board, National Assembly of Zambia, Office of the Auditor General and Cabinet Office, among other participants
Labels: AKASHAMBATWA MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA, CONTRACTORS, FNDP, PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Read more...
