Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
GOVERNMENT has said it is working to ensure that marginalised groups like the San are part of the country’s development agenda.
This came out during a workshop to align the country’s economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 which is being held in Victoria Falls.
Participants concurred that the principle of leaving no-one behind should be universally designed in the true sense of its meaning for the country to achieve the targeted goals.
In an interview on the sidelines of the workshop, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Permanent Secretary Mr Simon Masanga said in 2022 Government will roll-out programmes aimed at popularising the NDS1 and SDGs by involving all marginalised communities.
“The guiding principle under SDGs is not to leave anyone behind hence the need to involve all communities. We want the ordinary person in the streets, in rural areas and those marginalised groups like the San community in Matabeleland North to be part of this development agenda.
“We really want to work with local authorities and undertake local reviews to make sure we bring awareness to all the communities about the existence of NDS1 and SDGs and what their role will be in attaining the targets that we have set for ourselves,” said Mr Masanga.
He said there is a co-relationship in the broader agenda as NDS1 is embedded on SDGs and the Africa Agenda 2063.
Mr Masanga said the country wants to come up with a strong framework to ensure that as it moves towards vision 2030, it also implements the global agenda.
He said there was concern about lack of data which is key in planning and enables the country to measure progress.
“I am so happy that all ministries are represented here through their SDGs focal persons as we are looking at best practices in other countries.
When we started implementing SDGs, data availability was around 40 percent and we have progressively moved to around 60 percent, but we feel this is not adequate and we will use administrative data taking advantage of the national data urgency because if we don’t have data, it will be very difficult to have baselines and measure progress,” said Mr Masanga.
Representatives of the academia, non-governmental organisations, civil society, United Nations and experts from other countries are attending the workshop which ends tommorow.
Centre for Disability and Development consultant Mr Masimba Kuchera who is visually impaired said people with disabilities should be part of development.
He said information on both NDS1 and SDGs should be made available in formats easily accessible to people with disabilities.
“What we are interested in is to find out how people with disabilities can play a role in the achievement of NDS1 and attainment of SDGs. One of the ways is to make sure that information on NDS1 is in accessible formats such as braille, sign language, large print or audio and local vernacular languages so that we don’t leave anyone behind, ” he said.
Poverty Reduction Forum Trust executive director, Ms Judith Kaulemu, who is representing the Zimbabwe Civil Society Reference Group on SDGs, said their mandate is to complement Government efforts either directly through providing services or doing research to generate data that informs planning.
“This process is important because part of our role is to be a watchdog and demand accountability from Government. We should speak from a point where we have common understanding so it’s important that we are not left behind,” she said.
National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (Nango) social and economic development officer Mr Ernest Nyimai applauded Government for adopting an inclusive approach which brings together different stakeholders and sectors.
“Our role is to input and contribute meaningfully to social transformation,” he said.–@ncubeleon
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