Zambia Empowerment Hub bemoans UPND’s poor communication strategy
By Fanny Kalonda
THE ZAMBIA Empowerment Hub for Entrepreneurship and Skills Training says lack of communication by the UPND government to the voters will cost them.
Speaking when he featured on Hot FM’s Hot Seat programme, chief executive officer Clarence Monde said the government should be inclusive and engage people especially the youths in the country on what they were doing.
“Empowerment comes in various forms and the notion that many people have that empowerment comes through money [is wrong]. There is also knowledge empowerment, information empowerment, and skills empowerment,” he said on Thursday.
“Our role as a youth organisation is to find space in what government is doing. We are not attacking government. That is not our role. Our role is to supplement government programmes. We have done our speech and discovered that we are here to ensure that on Youth Day (today), our fellow youths educate themselves. It could be finding something to do. Get a skill, get advice, get mentored. Surround yourself with people that add value to yourself. But the challenge we are facing is the tools for youths to use in skills training.”
Monde hoped for fruitful outcome from the just ended Youth Indaba in Lusaka.
“We want government to be more inclusive, we know they are on the right track. We want government to be more consultative, like this Indaba is a plus on governance because we are going to get many ideas from young people. We only appeal that whatever will come from there is going to be implemented,” he said.
“A plan must be announced. One thing we are asking government is to be communicating with citizens. Government is doing a lot, but there is a gap between the communication. Government seems not to be communicating adequately with the voters, and that is going to cost government. So, we want government to listen more to what people are saying on the ground.”
Monde has also proposed that the government comes up with a mapping programme to identify which provinces could participate in what programme.
“Job creation, another way we can further propose government to do is to ensure that they do mapping in each province. We know that Southern Province, for example, can do better in farming despite the change in climate. We know that the region is for farming,” said Monde.
“We want government to be more inclusive. We know they are on the right track. Let’s identify which province is able to do what in line with cooperatives so that they come up with project proposals and based on location and the weather. Let’s do more consultations. Young people’s voices must be heard so that we move together. As young people, we are limited; we have been beaten technically in the construction sector. Most of the construction in the country is done by foreign companies. They have equipment. There is need to support local contractors in what they don’t have.”