The Ministry of Civic Education and National Unity on Wednesday held an interface meeting with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) leaders in a bid to strengthen partnership in the fight against Covid-19.
The ministry sought to appreciate efforts that CSOs are undertaking in responding to Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to draw an implementation plan for collaborative efforts between the Ministry and the CSOs in fighting the pandemic.
Speaking during the meeting, the Minister of Civic Education and National Unity Timothy Mtambo applauded the efforts of the CSOs in fighting Covid-19.
He stressed on the need to empower CSOs to take a leading role of civic education on the ground as they have readily existing structures which can influence impact.
“Your role is much critical in strategizing, programming and implementing civic education interventions, we therefore, need to combine our efforts in a coordinated manner for us to win this fight through behavioural change communication interventions,” said Mtambo.
He further pointed on the need to create a resource mobilization strategy that would assisting in raising resources for easy coordination of activities.
“As we are moving together, I propose the need to establish an NGO taskforce on Covid-19 which among others will champion coordination alongside with this Ministry for ease and effective implementation of our interventions,” he said.
On their part, CSOs representative, Andrew Simwimba, expressed optimism in the approach taken by the Ministry and assured the ministry that as CSOs will hand in collaboration to fight the fight against Covid-19.
“Besides our efforts but we are still facing challenges including misinformation, low enforcement, financial constraints and negligence by people to adhere to Covid-19 preventive measures but we are so sure that as we keep working together will overcome these bottle necks,” explained Simwimba.
The Ministry of Civic Education and National Unity is currently working on various civic education activities alongside the public communication cluster.
Some of the activities include deployment of 34 vehicles for public announcements in all districts, dissemination of information through daily media briefs and continuously developing prevention messages on Covid-19.
