HH - Zambia to Achieve Food Security Within 3 Years Despite Aid Reductions

Zambia is on course to be achieve food security in the next three years, President Hichilema stated on Monday. These remarks came at the opening of the UN-backed Forum of Least Developed Countries, hosted in Lusaka. He declared that the government intends to keep in place the disaster emergency status declared during last year’s drought. This is meant to ensure that Zambia builds resilience to these kinds of shocks and that the state retains the capacity to respond decisively to climate crises. Therefore, the President argued, food security will be achieved with or without rain, and that he expects record harvests this forthcoming year.

Talk of self-sufficiency among developing countries is timely, as large swathes of the Global South adjust to the new realities of aid reductions. Tackling this issue head-on at the Forum, the President said “we as a country believe that resilience is not an option. Global politics have changed, like it or not. We took for granted that aid is part of our way of living, not anymore, we have to do things that are not business as usual”.

President Hichilema expressed his confidence that through prudent public spending, and cooperative partnership among developing countries, essential policy goals like food security can be attained. Zambia’s hosting of this Forum indicates that President intends for it to play a leading role in forging this partnership.