Lumwana boosts women projects
By Times ReporterLUMWANA Mining Company (LMC) in Solwezi says it is committed to being an equal opportunity employer as agreed in the development agreement signed with the Government.
Acting Lumwana managing director, Charles Hennessey said in Lumwana during International Women’s Day commemorations that his company was proud to be among top companies in the world supporting the women’s event.
He said his company’s commitment to equal opportunity could be proved in its employment statistics and by the fact that it was training and empowering women to operate the 245 tonne Hitachi mine dump trucks.
As part of the larger stakeholder community LMC would also continue to identify and put in place relevant initiatives to support women’s skill development and participation in provision of innovative leadership.
And elsewhere in Solwezi, more women including marketeers and political cadres commemoratedtheir day, marching from the main station to Youth Alive grounds for festitivities officiated by North-Western Province Minister, Daniel Kalenga.
Mr Kalenga who read President Banda’s speech said Zambia’s commitment to ensuring equal rights and opportnities was guaranted in the Republican Constitution.
And gender sub- committee chairperson, Priscilla Mwansa called for practical and deliberate steps to put in place a legal framework that would improve the status of women and supporting policies for their implementation.
“Government should ensure that there is affirmative action to level the playing field for men and women in all areas of social, economical and political sectors,” Mrs Mwansa said.
And Southern Province Permanent Secretary Gladys Kristafor has said there is need for district gender strategic plans to guide the districts in the implementation of gender activities.
Ms Kristafor said the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) midterm review showed that gender issues were not systematically mainstreamed.
Ms Kristafor said this on Monday afternoon when she addressed the women at Kazungula Council Rest House in Kazungula during this year International Women’s Day.
“Bearing in mind that the Government is in the process of spearheading the development of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), this year International Women’s Day theme is a reminder to all the stakeholders that they should ensure that their respective sectors mainstream all cross cutting issues of gender, HIV/AIDS and the environment,” she said.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme was; ‘Equal rights, equal opportunities: Progress for all.’
She said the Kazungula SNDP chapter should reflect gender issues with well defined indictors for monitoring.
Ms Kristafor directed all heads of Government departments to ensure that mainstreaming of the cross cutting issues was strictly addressed during the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the SNDP.
Ms Kristafor said the increase in the allocation to the national gender machinery should be supplemented by gender responsive budgeting in all departments, spending agencies, private sector and civil society organisations and must be treated as a national programme across all sectors.
[Times of Zambia]
