The Chronicle
Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, [email protected]
GOVERNMENT has signed a letter of understanding with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), which will see the operationalization of the WFP Country Strategic Plan covering the period 2022 to 2026.
Hinged on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the related sustainable development goals, the plan sets forth an ambitious country-led framework for collective action aimed at achieving sustainable development, including ending poverty and hunger.
The government of Zimbabwe’s plans to achieve the country’s sustainable development goals are outlined in its National Development Strategy (NDS1 2021–2025).
In her remarks at the signing ceremony between the Government and the United Nations World Food Programme in Harare yesterday, the acting secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Ambassador Paveline Tendai Musaka, said the WFP Strategic Plan would provide the bedrock of livelihood support.
She said her ministry will continue to facilitate and support the WFP’s contributions to building shock-responsive social protection and food systems, which remain the cornerstone in assisting vulnerable groups of society and others who stand to benefit from the interventions.
The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency that works towards eradicating hunger and malnutrition. Every year, WFP feeds almost 80 million people in around 75 countries.
“We are gathered to witness the historic signing ceremony of the Letter of Understanding (LoU) between the Government of Zimbabwe and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The presence of various ministries, led by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare attests to the WFP’s wide tentacles and spirit of collaboration, which remains critical in accelerating sustainable hunger solutions,” she said.
“This event demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt, that the WFP and the UN family at large, have been dependable partners who have pursued all possible developmental initiatives with the Government.”
Amb Musaka expressed gratitude to the WFP for the long-standing relationship, which continues to yield positive fruits driven by the imperatives to advance the fundamentals of human security.
Ambassador Musaka also said the intervention by the WFP has led to the improvement of household food security and livelihood sustenance initiatives in line with the Government’s expectations.
The two parties have been working closely together since the early 1980s with the WFP’s humanitarian support broadening beyond emergency response mechanisms to encompass new partnerships built on the existing initiatives.
“This signing ceremony has come at an opportune time, as the WFP builds upon our existing efforts to attain national food security and nutrition in Zimbabwe, as we head towards attaining a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income economy by the year 2030,” said Amb Musaka.
“It is my hope that WFP will keep delivering food assistance and managing supply chains when situations require such collaboration. Going forward, the guiding values of multilateralism remain the solid anchor to which our national targets will be fully realized, in fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goals, which constantly remind us about the remaining time left to achieve our goals.”
She implored the organization to continue spearheading initiatives, which conform to the guiding plan to support all social protection efforts.
