“State, Church are partners”
By Times Reporter
Central province Permanent Secretary Denny Lumbama challenged the church to consider the Government as a partner in development and not its rival.
Mr Lumbama said this in a speech read for him by his deputy, Luke Mankapi in Kabwe on 28th May 2008 during the launch of the Central province Micah Challenge Zambia, a national coalition campaigning for poverty reduction and the attainment of the millennium development goals (MDGs).
He said the MDGS could only be met if all partners in development such as the church, civil society, the business sector, as well as trade unions worked as a team and not in isolation.
Mr Lumbama said the MDGs were attainable but such a resolve required seriousness by partners involved the world over.
“Government has and continues to remain steadfast in working towards meeting the MDGs as could be seen by some of the policies it has instituted”.
“We have an HIV /AIDS policy in place that has seen many patients access Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs free of charge and we have also instituted measures aimed at reducing extreme poverty,” said Mr Lumbama.
Mr Lumbama was encouraged to see that Christians throughout the world had realised the need to work with the governments in ensuring that the MDGs were met by 2015.
He commended Micah Challenge Zambia for taking up the initiative to supplement the Government efforts in meeting the MDGs and stressed that this was how it should be for the development of the country.
And Micah Challenge Zambia representative, Martin Kapenda said his organisation was building a coalition of member associations, churches, institutions, and individuals who were committed to engaging in poverty reduction and the biblical call to do justice and to love.
“as coalition of Christians committed to do justice and action, we will help the government meet eight MDG goals that include eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal education, promoting gender equality and reducing child mortality through our actions,” Mr Kapenda said.
The other goals the organisation would assist the government in attaining were to improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop global partnerships for development.
As a coalition of Christians committed to standing for justice in Zambia, Mr Kapenda said his organisation strongly urged the Government to keep its promise on attainment of the MDGs.
Micah Challenge Zambia was officially launched in Zambia on August 4, 2007 and it is in the process of being launched throughout the country’s nine provinces.
So far the initiative has already been launched on the Copperbelt, North-western, Luapula, and Central Provinces.
