The Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) s a multi-sectoral planning instrument applicable at the national level and covering the period from 2011 to 2015. It is the successor to the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP), aimed at actualizing the aspirations of the Vision 2030 of becoming a prosperous middle-income nation by 2030. The objectives of the SNDP are to: accelerate infrastructure development; economic growth and diversification; promote rural investment and accelerate poverty reduction, and enhance human development. While recognizing the importance of balanced growth in all sectors of the economy, the SNDP priority growth sectors are agriculture, livestock and fisheries, mining,tourism, manufacturing and commerce and trade. The Plan promotes the development of the agriucultural sector in order to assure food security and increased income by 2030. Under Chapter 12.5 are defined the strategies and programmes to be implemented to diversify and attain national and household food security. During the SNDP period, the SNDP will focus on guiding and expanding the scope of implementation of, and monitoring the nutrition related interventions under various sectors as per the National Food and Nutrition Policy. The key sectors of interest will be Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Development, Health, Education and Skills Development and Commerce, Trade and Industry. The SNDP will advocate for increased access to and coverage of high impact community-based nutrition interventions; the promotion of nutritious diet through crop diversification, adequate food processing, storage and utilization; expansion of school nutrition services; and adequate quality and safety of locally produced and imported food and food products in collaboration with Commerce, Trade and Industry. These will contribute towards improvement in the nutrition status of the population, thus adding value to the human capital required for social and economic development. Furthermore, SNDP will seek to amend legislation to enhance and streamline the various interventions. As regards the agricultural sector, the vision of the Plan towards 2030 is to attain an efficient, competitive, sustainable and export led agriculture sector. The SNDP’s focus under the crop production sub-sector will be to develop irrigation and farm blocks, enhance research and extension services and promote utilization of improved seed varieties. Under the livestock sub-sector, the focus will be to increase livestock numbers through the creation of a Disease Free Zone (DFZ), infrastructure development and rehabilitation, enhance livestock disease control, surveillance and research, developing livestock standards and grades, and processing of livestock and livestock products. For the fisheries sub-sector, the strategic focus will be aquaculture development and improvement of infrastructure for fisheries research and marketing. In addition, emphasis will be on promoting of post-harvest technologies, agro-processing and access to domestic, regional and international markets for agro-products. The theme of the SNDP is “Sustained economic growth and poverty reduction”, which will be achieved through accelerated infrastructure and human development, enhanced economic growth and diversification, and promotion of rural development. During the SNDP period, investment in rural areas will be an important factor in increasing employment and reducing poverty. The SNDP will, therefore, promote increased rural investment in infrastructure such as roads, rail, Information and Communication Technology, energy, water and sanitation, education and health. Further the Plan promotes the participation of farming communities in the uptake of proven agricultural practices, as well as the private sector participation in agriculture marketing. mong the strategies of the Plan, facilitating access to credit for smallholders is envisaged. Through the SNDP, the Government of Zambia will develop and implement policies and programmes that support crop diversification, livestock and fisheries production, increased productivity in crops and livestock, sustainable land and water management, including forestry, agro-forestry, climate change adaptation and mitigation and other environmentally friendly agricultural systems; and facilitate equitable access to land for agricultural purposes and access to domestic, regional and international markets for agro-products. Further the Plan promotes the participation of farming communities in the uptake of proven agricultural practices (such as conservation farming through enhanced extension services), private sector participation in agriculture marketing. During the SNPD period, the main aim is to reduce the socio-economic impact of disasters by enhancing and building strong disaster risk management mechanisms at community, district and national level as well as building infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters. This will be achieved through enhanced planning, response, reconstruction, rehabilitation and disaster mitigation. Efforts to achieve this include the integration of disaster risk management into sustainable development planning and programming at all levels. In addition, the SNPD will undertake activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector and strengthen adaptation and resilience to climate change related stresses through the development of an Incentive Framework for investing in environmentally friendly technologies for electricity, lighting, heating and agriculture; and an Energy Sector Vulnerability Assessments and Risk Management Plan and Mitigation Action Plan.As regards mitigation measures, special attention will be given to women as this group is more vulnerable to climate change due to its poor resource base and being the majority of the rural agricultural households. The Government of Zambia will continue to promote good governance during the SNDP period in the following areas: enhancing integrity, accountability and transparency in public and private bodies; improving access to justice by all especially for the vulnerable; promotion of human rights; and enhancing democratization. In addition, the SNDP calls upon the public and private sector, cooperating Partners, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations and the ordinary Zambians to be pillars in the SNDP implementation, supervision and monitoring in the various sectors.
Замбия · 2011-01-01