BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MBABANE – Decentralisation across services.
This was one of the leading principles in today’s engagement between Hhhohho chiefs, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Eswatini. The meeting was held today in Pigg’s Peak, to review the National Population Policy. The Eswatini NPP is designed for the next five years.
Speaking during the review meeting the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Thabisilie Mlangeni, said that the policy is designed to align development in the country with the needs of the people. The PS thanked the chiefs for the input they have had in the development of the policy, adding that this is a very important part of developing a human development policy.
“We are humbled by the passion we are seeing you have for developing the country. Our work is to manage the country’s economy and development and in past times, we have had meetings like this for different programmes,” said the PS.
“After we look at how an economy is developed, we then go deeper into what happens to the person as the economy grows – because the human is the source of the economy. As we were developing the policy, the public’s feedback and viewpoint has been very important. This is because when you are preparing a plan for people, it is useless to do it without the people,” said Mlangeni.
Presenting on the initial feedback which was gathered from chiefs across the country’s four regions, UNFPA’s Make Masuku expanded on the aspects which are impacted by the NPP. She noted that the NPP looks at the people’s welfare in the form of employment, education, healthcare, electricity.
Masuku revealed that other issues covered under the NPP as suggested by chiefs were Human rights, reproductive health, immigration policies, economic equality, equitable access to economic opportunities, vocational education all over the country, education curriculum to make schools successful, youth unemployment, land use, gender equality, and decentralisation of development initiatives.
“There was an example of the Youth Enterprise Fund, which has been successfully decentralised into all constituencies in the country,” said Masuku on decentralisation of services.
