PROGRAMME Against Malnutrition (PAM) has commended President Hakainde Hichilema for his pronouncements that “no one should go to bed hungry and that time will come when poverty will not be tolerated in Zambia.”
Mr. Hichilema said on Tuesday in his inaugural speech that his Government will focus on restoring macroeconomic stability and promoting the growth of the economy in the next five years, declaring that no Zambian should go to bed with an empty stomach.
PAM executive director Francis Kasamala said the declaration by the President reinvigorated the organisation that understood the depth of poverty, hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition in Zambia to continue to forge on together with the Government and like-minded cooperating partners.
Mr. Kasamala however urged the new Government to be focused on the presidential pronouncements by ensuring equitable distribution of resources to address food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty.
“As an organisation that champions the eradication of poverty and hunger and food insecurity in Zambia especially among the rural vulnerable communities we are delighted with the proclamation by President Hichilema that “no one should go to bed hungry and that time will come when poverty will not be tolerated in Zambia,” Mr. Kasamala said.
He said President Hichilema’s proclamation responds squarely to what the reality was in Zambia. Mr. Kasamala said to many Zambians in both rural and urban areas severe hunger was normal and research also showed that Zambia was among the hungriest nations in the world while undernourishment in the population, wasting and prevalence of stunting among under-five children are still very high in Zambia.
He further said the situation was exacerbated by inequities in the distribution of resources, escalation of prices of foods, climate change which caused floods, droughts and extreme temperatures, low productivity, high unemployment among others.
Mr. Kasamala said the global pandemic and economic slump had also not spared Zambia and that the full impact of this on hunger, poverty, and food insecurity was yet to be determined with the rural communities
being the most vulnerable especially children, women, and youths.