THE Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage conducted a workshop attended by heads of departments under its ambit to review its five-year strategic plan.
The workshop which was held in Victoria Falls last week, was attended by police, Department of Immigration, National Museums and Monuments, Central Registry Department, Lotteries and Gaming Board as well as the National Archives of Zimbabwe.
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Ruth Mavhunga-Mabhoyi said the workshop was meant to assess progress made as the strategic plan is now halfway through its implementation.
“It’s a good thing because where there are weaknesses we are going to address those and where there are strengths you give yourselves a pompom. So I just want to congratulate you that you are here in order to look at all what you did from 2020 although we had Covid-19,” she said.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the workshop, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr Gerald Gwinji said the mid-term review workshop was meant to take stock of work done so far in various departments and agencies of the ministry in terms of the strategic plan in relation to implementation of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
“Each department has got its own plans that are feeding into the National Development Strategy in order to meet the country’s 2030 Vision. We have plans that we were supposed to implement according to each agency and those are the plans that we are reviewing,” said Dr Gwinji.
He said respective departments made significant developments in various projects and activities but are facing challenges due to shortage of resources and lack of relevant skilled persons.
“We are operating in an environment which is rather difficult but most of the targets have been met.
The ministry has done well and we have just been challenged by the issue of resources and inflation pressures,” said Dr Gwinji.
He said Government is addressing infrastructure shortages as well as upgrading existing facilities especially for the Civil Registry Office whose services have also been upgraded to embrace digital technology while some of the Department of Immigration’s services are now online.
The Government, through the ministry has decentralised some of the departments and their services in line with the Devolution policy.
Dr Gwinji said the ministry is using resources from Treasury and support from technical partners in various areas. He could not readily specify how much the ministry requires for all its projects.
The International Organisation for Migration has been providing the ministry’s departments with technical support especially to the Immigration Department while the Civil Registry partnered with an international company to produce e-passports and this has helped to clear the travel documents backlog.-@ncubeleon
