The southern African sub-region is at a critical human resource crossroads.

It is faced with daunting human capacity challenges that are exacerbated by the interlocking impacts of HIV and AIDS, poverty and recurring disasters.

The resulting weakened human capacity for sustained and efficient service delivery of basic social services to the public at all levels, demands new innovative skills and approaches if countries are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As a response to this urgency, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), countries in southern Africa, development partners and other United Nations (UN) agencies and organisations are promoting, supporting and implementing a new initiative - The Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SACI).

While this human capacity initiative currently focuses on southern Africa, its applicability could in the future be extended to other parts of the continent facing similar capacity challenges.

SACI is a framework promoting responses to a number of critical human capacity areas. The initiative supports countries in southern Africa to design and implement a set of additional actions and strategies which address the complex human capacity challenges in a systemic and integrated manner.
The framework calls for a new sense of urgency to meet capacity needs that will facilitate achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
SACI currently covers Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Main components

• Enhancing the policy environment to address the human capacity challenge - Promote new efforts to strengthen the overall policy framework for addressing human capacity constraints in the context of current challenges. This involves adaptation, coordination and development of policy instruments or strategies;
• Developing new approaches for strengthened service delivery - Promoting alternative approaches to the re-thinking and reorganisation of service delivery in order to maximise outreach, including consideration for new ways in which community-based and civil society organisations, as well as the private sector, can contribute to enhancing service delivery. In this area, opportunities for using Information Communications Technology (ICT) to strengthen service delivery is identified and developed;
• Innovative and urgent training for meeting new demands for skills and capacity that are now surfacing - This involves working with institutions to develop training programmes and competencies in new areas such as governance, food security, strategic and systems thinking. Among other approaches, the focus is to work with institutions and other bodies in development of skills acquisition and training programmes for key sectors such as health, education, agriculture and public service, as well as in identified new sectors; and
• Promoting capacity stabilisation, maintenance and utilisation - This involves the rapid programming and deployment of United Nations Volunteers (UNV) and other existing volunteer schemes to meet critical capacity gaps at various levels in the countries. An appropriate aspect of this is the development of National Volunteer Schemes, which could engage a fairly sizeable number of nationals from a pool of skilled graduates, or retired persons remunerated to work at national, district, local and grassroots levels in the country to strengthen depleted human capacity.

SACI Framework Focus

Partnerships for the promotion of SACI

Regional/Continental organs AU, NEPAD, SADC, ECA, IGAD, ACBF and others.

Multi-lateral/International Financial Institutions UN Agencies, ECA, World Bank, IMF, EU, AfDB and others.
Bilateral AID Organisations. Regional NGOs, networks, academia and select private sector organisations. South-South Cooperation.

For more information, contact the SACI Operational Team at the UNDP Regional Service Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa, 7 Naivasha Road, Sunninghill, Johannesburg, South Africa. Tel: 27-11-603 5000 Fax 27-11-603-5071 www.undp.org/rba/saci