28/04/2026
THE 9th NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN!
As a growing youth-led mental health organization, it was such an honor to be invited to a high-profile consultative meeting, in which the was tabled. Thank you for the recognition, of finance and Youth Development Council on the Copperbelt province of Zambia. We were represented by our Deputy Executive Director, Jacqueline Munyangwa and here is her take away!
It was such an honour for me to represent Mental Hygiene Initiative during the consultative meeting on Nineth National Development Plan, held yesterday at Protea Hotel. Among other issues, here are a few takeaways I managed to take down.
9NDP CONSULTATIVE MEETING BRIEF SUMMARY
Copperbelt | 27 April 2026 | Protea Hotel, Ndola
This spectacular event was officiated by the Copperbelt Permanent Secretary, Mr Lawrence Mwanza.
The Purpose of this meeting was the identification of roadblocks for the 9th National Development Plan with input from Private Sector, Civil Society, Youths and Academia.
1. With regards to Development, noted was a High disease and poverty burden, teacher or Information Communication and Technology gaps in schools, poor infrastructure, skills mismatch.
2. Health Statistics of Under-5 mortality is at 42/1,000 compared to the Target of 30/1000, Maternal mortality is 187/100,000 compared to the Target of 180/100,000. About 18,000plus health workers were recruited, but targets still missed.
3. Environmental Issues such as more droughts, weak climate action plans, donor-reliant climate funding, fragmented early warning systems were noted.
5. Governance Gaps: Poor coordination, low Community Development Fund absorption by local authorities, staff/skills gaps in procurement & finance, overcrowded prisons, weak government systems.
6. Projects Fail because there is weak prioritization of new versus ongoing projects, poor fiscal discipline & unpaid contractors, weak contract management, bad data/Monitoring & Evaluation.
7. The Economic Outlook for 2026-2028 is focusing on Growth in mining or copper for green energy, Inflation reduction,Opportunities for global copper or cobalt demand. Risks relating to climate shocks, forex volatility, energy & infrastructure constraints.
8. The 8NDP Lessons Learnt include ligning budgets to real NDP targets, scaling up of PPPs, build local capacity and increaseling CDF use, digitizing Monitoring & Evaluation systems, mainstreaming climate-smart infrastructure.
Conclusively, it was noted that we have more CDF money and health workers, but poor absorption, capacity gaps, and climate or energy risks block results. 9NDP must fix budgeting, local capacity, M&E, and use PPPs to deliver.
It is platforms like these that not only take MHI to greater heights, but the entire country at large.
Ministry of Finance
National Youth Development Council
Copperbelt Province
Pious Simfukwe Jr.
