Zambia has made strides in resilience building – Veep

Vice President Inonge Wina

Vice President Inonge Wina says Zambia has made significant progress in resilience building as seen from mainstreaming elements of resilience into the Seventh National Development Plan including the sector plans.

Ms. Wina says additionally, in terms of policy provisions on resilience, the Zambian government has developed the disaster management policy, disaster management Act, and disaster management operations manual to support this cause.

She adds that Zambia has also developed a national disaster risk management framework which feeds into the AU and SADC frameworks.

Ms. Wina says resilience is also mainstreamed into the national policy on climate change.

The Vice President said this in a speech read on her behalf by Local Government Minister Vincent Mwale during the official launch of the COMESA Resilience Academy in Lusaka.

Speaking earlier, COMESA Climate Change Advisor Mclay Kanyangarara says climate change has arrived and with a vengeance.

He says this is why people are seeing unprecedented frequency and severity of deadly hurricanes, cyclones, extreme dry weather and massive fires all over the world.

And Rockefeller Foundation Africa Associate Director Betty Kibaara says her foundation has invested more than half a billion dollars globally in partnerships and initiatives to help individuals, communities and countries build their economic, social and climate resilience.