Government says it recognizes the importance of capacity building intervention due to its timeliness as it is currently undertaking statistical reforms aimed at enhancing Zambia’s ability to integrate accountability in development.
Ministry of National Development Planning permanent secretary Mr. Chola j Chabala said it is imperative that government formulates policies that are evident-based and anchored on reliable and accurate statistics.
Mr. Chabala said the objective of the training aims to strengthen the technical capacity of planning and statistical, monitoring and evaluation officers in implementing the national strategies for integrating accountability in national planning.
He disclosed that the link between statistics and development planning is getting narrower due to the interdependence and strong correlation between development planning and statistical data.
The Permenant Secretary said this during the official opening of the capacity building workshop on strengthening capacity of African governments for integrating accountability in national development planning.
And speaking at the same event, Principal Regional Advisor on Development Planning Macroeconomic and Government Division, Professor Sylvain Boko said that one of the challenges faced by governments concerns measurement progress with respect to achieving their national development goals.
Prof. Boko also added that there was need to know how to monitor and evaluate achievements, so as to render account to the population, in a regular, accessible and predictable manner.
He said the effectiveness of national planning systems hinges largely upon the availability of quality and relevant data, including essential statistics related to important developmental benchmarks such as economic growth, poverty, taxes, trade, births, deaths among others.
The advisor added that the above remain fundamental to the design and implementation of development planning processes that are economically transformative and sustainable.
He disclosed that his expectation at the end of this project was to see Zambia, have the capacity to contribute to elevating and strengthening accountability in African countries through showcasing its own national best practices.