mndp.gov.zm National Development Plan 2017-21 : Ministry of National Development Planning

Organization : Ministry of National Development Planning
Facility : National Development Plan 2017-21
Applicable For : All
Country: Zambia
Details : https://www.statusin.org/uploads/40513-7NDP.pdf
Website : http://www.mndp.gov.zm/

MNDP National Development Plan

Zambia has had three development plans since the re-introduction of the medium-term development planning process in the early 2000s, namely the Fifth National Development Plan, 2006-2010 (FNDP), Sixth National Development Plan, 2011-2015 (SNDP) and the Revised Sixth National Development Plan, 2013-2016 (R-SNDP).

Related : Bank of Zambia Numismatic Coins : www.statusin.org/40500.html

These Plans were formulated with a view to meeting the national aspirations as articulated in the Vision 2030. These aspirations are to transform the country from a primary product-dependent economy to a strong, dynamic middle income industrialised country by 2030.

Implementation Challenges Of Prior Development Plans

** The FNDP and SNDP/R-SNDP were mostly supported through the annual budgets and medium-term expenditure frameworks.
** However, the amounts and unpredictability of budgetary releases negatively affected programme implementation and achievement of desired outputs and outcomes.
** A detailed analysis of expenditure revealed that programmes were not funded as provided for in these previous Development Plans.
** This was partly due to funds not being availed on time to Ministries, Provinces and other Spending Agencies (MPSAs).

** In addition, there was a noticeable mismatch between the programmes contained in the annual budgets and plans to an extent that even when resources were released for programmes, there were variations that led to resources being expended on non-core activities of the Plans.

** Further, despite the Plans having increased allocations to sectors targeting human development, the allocations in the budgets were not sufficient to implement most development programmes.

** The Plans were also affected by failure to fully implement the Decentralisation Policy, especially fiscal decentralisation, despite the approval of both the policy and its implementation plan.

** They were further affected by poor coordination among various implementing entities and stakeholders mainly due to limitations in the institutional arrangements and technical capacities.

** There was also poor uptake of results which led to implementing agencies not having timely policy guidance with regard to the implementation of the Plans.
** This was because of poor appreciation of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in MPSAs for internal use, coupled with fragmented systems within and between Ministries.
** In most cases data was untimely produced or simply not adequately aligned to the information gaps of the users.

Employment

** The inability of the recent economic growth to significantly impact on poverty reduction is largely as a result of low employment creation.

** Growth in the economy can reduce poverty rapidly if the employment potential it creates enables poor people raise their income, either through increased employment or through higher returns to labour.

** However, statistics show that formal sector employment growth was sluggish during the prior development plan periods.
** According to the 2014 Labour Force Survey, about 84 percent of the working population was employed in the informal sector (91.2 percent for females, 75.8 percent for males).
** Informal employment between 2005 and 2014 remained high, at between 84 and 89 percent of the total number of people employed.

Outline Of The Plan

This document is organised as follows:
Part I contains the overview of the 7NDP and the people’s voices on development;
Part II outlines the development context: past performance and opportunities and challenges of Zambia’s development;

Part III presents the current situation of the economy, at both national and sectoral levels; it also describes the macroeconomic framework in which the Plan will be executed.

Part IV describes what it will take to move towards the Vision 2030, the conceptual framework, the goal and the strategic objectives of the 7NDP.

Part V presents the strategic areas of the Plan, which are economic diversification and job creation; poverty and vulnerability reduction; reducing developmental inequalities; enhancing human development; and the creation of a conducive governance environment for a diversified and inclusive economy.

Financing of the Plan is discussed in Part VI, while Part VII discusses the implementation and coordination as well as the monitoring and evaluation framework of the Plan.