The drought calamity has disrupted the Zambian government’s plans and thrown the national budget into disarray, Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana has said.
Speaking at the 2024 Risk Conference in Livingstone this morning, Kawana said the government had been making strides in all areas of endeavor to ensure resilience and sustainability and described the conference as timely, coming at a time when Zambia’s path to development was being severely challenged by the natural calamity of drought.

“The government desires to have robust risk management in place because risk management will assist the leadership of this country to proactively identify and control threats and vulnerabilities that could impact the country negatively as the drought has done,” he said.
He said the Government is now faced with the dual challenge of not raising the anticipated revenue while being forced to allocate more resources to unplanned expenditures.
Kawana stated that the agriculture sector, a cornerstone of Zambia’s economy, has seen its progress subdued and the energy sufficiency strategy had been significantly compromised.
“These issues, among others, highlight the critical need for robust risk management strategies to navigate the uncertainties that threaten the nation’s stability and growth. The conference should play a critical role in helping the participants to connect the dots between emerging technologies and the evolving risks they bring,” he said.

Kawana urged the representatives of different organizations to be mindful that when it comes to risk management, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’.
He said the conference provides a unique opportunity to deepen people’s understanding, share best practices, and develop comprehensive risk management frameworks that will steer the country through complexities.
He said the government looks forward to a clear process of identifying, assessing, and minimizing the impact of risks in all systems, bearing in mind that there are different kinds of risks.
The annual conference is this year being held under the theme “Building a Resilient and Sustainable Zambia”.