Page 20 - 41st Summit Brochure

g Women Empowerment: Gender Mainstreaming
A number of policies were developed and/or mainstreamed for engendered women empowerment,
including,
v A SADC Framework for Achieving Gender Parity in Political and Decision-Making Positions,
providing strategies and guidelines for strengthening the implementation of the SADC Protocol on
Gender and Development to ensure that at least 50 percent of all decision-making positions at all
levels would be held by women by 2030. Progress is mixed, but gradual steps are being made, with
women in leadership positions such as President and Vice President, Prime Minister and Deputy
Prime Minister, and Speaker of National Assembly or Parliament. A significant number of women are
holding a wider range of ministerial portfolios, are parliamentarians, and hold numerous leadership
positions in the public sector. This notwithstanding, more efforts and commitment by Member States
remain critical, in order to achieve the 50:50 gender parity.
g Institutional Strengthening. Key institutional reforms, policy reviews, and change management towards
enhanced corporate governance and effective delivery were undertaken. Among others, the SADC
Organization Structure was reviewed and streamlined in 2016 to deliver on the technological and economic
transformation of the Region in line with the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063.

g Post-2020 Direction of SADC. The reputation and development of an organization depends on a clear
strategic direction. In this regard, towards the end of my tenure, recognizing that the Revised Regional
Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2015-20 was coming to an end, the Region developed a
SADC Vision 2050, whose implementation has also been planned through the SADC Regional Indicative
th
Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-30. These two major documents were approved by the 40 SADC
Summit in August 2020.
v Vision 2050 sets out the long-term aspirations of SADC over the next 30 years, and envisages a
peaceful, inclusive, competitive, middle- to-high-income industrialized region, where all citizens
enjoy sustainable economic wellbeing, justice and freedom.
v The Vision is based on a firm foundation of Peace, Security and Democratic Governance, and
18 premised on three inter-related pillars – Industrial Development and Market Integration;
Infrastructure Development in support of Regional Integration; and, Social and Human Capital
Development. The Vision recognizes the importance of Crosscutting Issues including gender, youth,
environment and climate change, and disaster risk management.
v In line with the Vision, the RISDP 2020-30 outlines a development trajectory for 10 years to 2030.

The ultimate aim of SADC is to eradicate poverty. However, many of the SADC citizens still live below the
poverty line, what is missing and what should be done to eradicate poverty?
Eradication of poverty is not an event but is rather a process that requires collaborative efforts at national,
regional, continental and global levels. Notwithstanding that poverty eradication is at the top of the SADC
agenda, it still remains one of the greatest challenges in the Region, with almost half of the 370 million people
living on less than US$1 a day. Hunger, malnutrition, gender inequalities, exploitation, marginalization, high
morbidity, and HIV and AIDS are a few of the complex challenges that contribute to poverty in the SADC
Region. While efforts are being made to tackle the underlying causes, disasters such as drought, and the recent
COVID-19 pandemic, stifle progress.
To alleviate poverty, SADC has developed various programmes under the RISDP 2020-2030 and Vision
2050, including the Social and Human Capital Development programme which is a crucial component of
industrialization and regional integration. The Programme seeks to ensure that socio-economic development
is achieved in a human-centred, inclusive, and sustainable manner. The Social and Human Capital Development
pillar seeks to create an enabling environment by fostering the link between economic growth and human
wellbeing, through holistic interventions that leave no one behind, and end poverty.
With a special focus on women, youth, and children, the RISDP 2020-30 accords attention to enhancing
opportunities for all citizens to enjoy socio-economic wellbeing in a context of improved food and nutrition
security. Interventions will include accelerated education and skills development and access to full and
productive employment.
RISDP 2020-2030 identifies poverty eradication as the overarching priority of regional integration in
Southern Africa. To elaborate on this plan and to translate its priorities into an implementation framework,
SADC has also developed the Regional Poverty Reduction Framework. This framework covers critical areas
where a regional approach is expected to strengthen the national interventions to address poverty, by: