THE university of Zambia (UNZA) and the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) have signed a four year agreement to embark on a special training programme in economic policy management. THE University of Zambia (UNZA) has reaffirmed its commitment to continue building on the success scored by the Economic Policy Management (EPM) Programme at the institution.
The University vice chancellor Professor Stephen Simukanga, recently signed a two year grant meant for the Economic policy Management Programme (EPM) presented by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF).
During the signing in ceremony which was recently held at the school of mines, UNZA Vice Chancellor signed the agreement on behalf of the University with the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) executive secretary DR Emmanuel Nnadozie.
“We are witnessing yet another moment’s occasion in the life of our university with the signing of a new agreement with the ACBF for the EPM programme at the University of Zambia”, Prof. Simukanga said.
In 2008 the University of Zambia and the ACBF signed a four year agreement to embark on a special training programme in economic policy management.
Prof. Simukanga added, “over the past five years ACBF has been an all weather friend providing us with the much needed support in the process of institution building, I hope that together we can build on these achievements in the next two years."
He further commended ACBF for providing another grant to help strengthen the success of the institution through the EMP over the past five years into the coming years.
Prof. Simukankaga explained that the EMP programme was a training programme that was focused on impacting skills in economic policy management among public service workers in the Southern African region.
“In the first four years the EPM programme at UNZA has scored enormous success, it has trained over 160 graduates in economic policy management and out of these, 50 percent came from outside Zambia representing all the Anglophone countries around Zambia including Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe”, He said.
And African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) Executive Secretary Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie, said since its establishment, the ACBF has been supporting policy centers in Africa with the objective to have most of the policy decisions made on content that is evidence based.
He noted that the ACBF in April 2013 approved a grant of 1.2 million dollars to support EMP programme in Zambia.
“The grant we are signing is a response to continue providing support to EPM Zambia to offer not only the masters programme in economic policy management but also short term courses to public servants in managerial positions”, Prof. Nnadozie said.
He added that the master’s degree programme was aimed at contributing to the increase of skills and a number of economic policy managers in the region whilst the short term courses would contribute in enhancing job skills for public servants.
“The EPM second phase programme is aimed at improving efficiency in economic policy management in the public sector in southern Africa and the key beneficiaries of the programme are the students of Zambia and in the Sothern region,” Prof. Nandozie added.
He has since noted that the proposed phase two programme tends to train 110 EPM graduates adding that during this phase the programme seeks to improve the female ratio of EPM graduates.
UNZA Signs grant agreement with ACBF
