BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA
SPEAKER of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda yesterday lauded outgoing United Nations (UN) resident co-ordinator Maria Ribeiro for her work in building the capacity of parliamentary portfolio and thematic committees.
Ribeiro yesterday paid a courtesy call on Mudenda as she wound up her duties in the country, where she has been representing the UN in its support of programmes to fight corruption, promotion of gender rights and issues pertaining to socio-economic and good governance.
“We express our most profound gratitude for the co-ordinate work that she (Ribeiro) has done in ensuring that the UN agencies work productively with our Parliament, especially in capacitating our various portfolio committees, as well as in the individual capacitation of our MPs,” Mudenda said.
“The results speak for themselves in that our Parliament has up-scaled its performance, vis-à-vis its responsibilities of representation, lawmaking and its oversight role on the Executive.”
Ribeiro pledged continued assistance of UN agencies to Parliament.
“We had an overview of what is affecting Parliament and it is one of the branches of the State for which we give a lot of support, its oversight and legislative roles are key and we will continue to work with Parliament,” she said.
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