02 Feb 2016

Local authorities play an important role in delivery of services to the public

Therefore, when delivering the 2016/17 budget speech on Monday, Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr Kenneth Matambo, said to strengthen local governance, government continued to put in place policies and strategies to develop districts and urban centres.

He, therefore, said government developed the Local Economic Development (LED) framework in 2015 in recognition of the potential for local authorities to drive economic growth.

He also said the LED initiative was intended to enable communities to identify their development challenges and needs, understand their resource endowment, mobilise resources and take action to grow and diversify local economies.

Mr Matambo stated that the initiative was expected to have lasting outcomes on creating decent jobs and incomes for communities, thereby improving livelihoods for citizens.

Meanwhile, Mr Matambo also said in an effort to enhance living standards of the most vulnerable members of society, government continued to provide social welfare programmes for them to live in dignity.

He said government was committed to ensuring sustainability of the programmes through continuous evaluation of their effectiveness, and better targeting of their beneficiaries. Ends