Budget in line with MTP, says Sibanda

Term Plan, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Dr Desire Sibanda, has said.
He was speaking at a policy dialogue on poverty reduction hosted by the International Institute of Environmental Studies in Harare yesterday.

The MTP is supposed to dovetail with the three-year Macro-Economic and Budgetary Framework 2010-2012 that was launched last year by the Ministry of Finance, which means it should guide fiscal planning.

“The 2012 Budget has been dubbed pro-poor, because of the number of initiatives aimed providing relief and support to the poorest members of the economy.
“Civil servants’ housing allowances were declared tax free and agriculture inputs were increased. Agriculture will also benefit from funding aimed at increasing irrigation across the country and rural electrification, water and sanitation projects.

“This dovetails well with the inclusive growth enunciated in the MTP,” said Dr Sibanda.
He said one of the critical targets of the MTP was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, which was based on the first of the United Nations Development Programme Millennium Development Goals.
In terms of MDG 1, the key targets include reducing by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day, achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all.

This includes women and young people, and reducing by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
Dr Sibanda said the Government would continue to invest in social services such as health and education.
Escalating housing rentals, electricity, water, education fees imply the need for greater State intervention on reducing the current high cost utilities and social services for the poor.

Added Dr Sibanda: “Empowering the poor is essential for bringing about the policies and investments needed to promote pro-poor growth and address the multiple dimensions of poverty.”
Presenting the 2012 Budget last week, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said next year’s fiscal plan was based on implementing MTP vision of a “developmental State anchored by a growing and transforming, socially just economy”.

“In this regard, we have an obligation to shift Government resources from corrosive recurrent expenditure in favour of inclusive and pro-poor growth areas,” he said.
To this extent, some of the key areas that Minister Biti focused on in the budget included amongst others unemployment, easy access to basic services, education, health and other social service

delivery, social protection and safety nets, including for people living with disability.
Other included support for agriculture and household food security, and guaranteeing clean water supply and improved sanitation services in the rural areas.
Studies on poverty in Zimbabwe indicate that of those classified as “very poor”, 84 percent are domiciled in the rural areas, where the impact of macro-economic policies is limited.

To this extent there is need for economic planners to place emphasis on improving rural livelihoods and smallholder farming through the establishment of rural industries focusing on enhancement of value addition, irrigation, mechanisation, inputs, infrastructure and markets.

This appears to be a key area that the Government has focused on in the 2012 Budget, with a US$226 million allocation for the agricultural sector.