Mutale Wakunuma is lifting people out of poverty
Mutale Wakunuma is the national co-ordinator for the Platform for Social Protection in Zambia, a country-wide platform for civil society organisations (CSOs) that advocate the implementation of effective policies and programmes for poverty reduction.
“We are in the civil sector to influence government. As an advocacy agent, civil society needs to know who they’re speaking to and what they want to achieve. You want to communicate results to the right people through an effective influencer strategy, and not just highlight results for the sake of it,” says Wakunuma.
She has been instrumental in the social protection advocacy policy agenda since 2009. Her successes include the development of a fully funded five-year strategic plan in strengthening this agenda among CSOs.
She has also ensured that the country has a National Social Protection Policy, which has been approved by Cabinet and is awaiting implementation.
Her organisation believes social protection tools are a direct intervention that can be used to reduce poverty. This has proved to be effective in changing the lives of various communities across the country.
The organisation is proud of is its ability to influence legislators and policy-makers to address poverty issues from a different perspective.
“One of the challenges of civil society is our capacity to advocate government, because not everybody understands what social protection programmes involve. There has been a gap in the market of effectively addressing government in social protection. To this end, we have worked to mobilise communities, civil society and media,” she says.