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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Manicaland Bureau
GOVERNMENT needs to adopt new strategies to end the high poverty prevalence rates being recorded in Manicaland province, an official has said.

Speaking at a consultative meeting on Sustainable Development Goals held in Mutare recently, director in the Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Mr Graciano Nyaguse said poverty prevalence in Manicaland stood at 71 percent.

“The poverty prevalence levels are at 71 percent against a national average of 72 percent,” he said. “There is need to strengthen current programmes and develop new strategies that are aimed at ending poverty by 2030.”

Mr Nyaguse said Manicaland was the second largest province in Zimbabwe with a population of 1,755 million and a total of 4 861 house- holds.

This means that more than 1,2 million people in the province live below the Poverty Datum Line.

The United Nations General Assembly last year adopted the 17 SDGs, which will run up to the year 2030 to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that ran from 2000 to 2015.

Ending poverty is goal number one on the UN SDG list.

Mr Nyaguse said SDGs could improve the quality of life of citizens and provincial structures needed to familiarise with prioritised SDG goals.

He emphasised the importance of capturing all data relevant to the smooth implementation of the SDG goals.

“It is imperative for the provincial authorities countrywide to record all the data for their areas so that a true picture of what is happening in all provinces is correctly portrayed,” said Mr Nya- guse.

Last year, Government decided to prioritise implementation of 10 out of the 17 SDGs in an effort to properly divide the available limited resources among the priority goals.

The prioritised SDGs included Goal No. 8, which deals with decent work and economic growth, while No. 7 focuses on provision of affordable and clean energy.