1. Defining the ‘southern Africa region’
2. Understanding what we mean by ‘regional’ and ‘regionally significant’
3. What do we mean by ‘civil society’?
4. What are ‘regional policy processes’?
5. Supporting ‘voices of the poor’?
Q: Defining the ‘southern Africa region’ [To Top]
A:
The Southern Africa Trust uses SADC membership to delimit what is described as the ‘southern African region’. Where a compelling basis exists to include participation in processes supported by the Southern Africa Trust from a country that does not fall within SADC, this can be considered on a case by case basis.
Work done by organisations linked to the Southern Africa Trust need not cover all countries in the region, but may focus on sub-regional initiatives that involve forms of participation, engagement or research relevant to at least two countries.
The fourteen SADC member countries are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Q: Understanding what we mean by ‘regional’ and ‘regionally significant’
A:
Many policy issues that impact on poverty are most effectively addressed at national level, and many civil society programmes exist to support engagement in policy development, implementation and monitoring at this level. This is not the role of the Southern Africa Trust and the Trust will not normally consider supporting initiatives that are solely country-based and targeted at national-level policy without having significance for regional policy dialogue.
In addition, many countries in the region share common challenges, and some programmes described as ‘regional’ are based on the replication of similar national programmes in parallel across many countries in the region. These are what the Southern Africa Trust describes as ‘multi-country’ programmes, and are not, in general, a priority for the Southern Africa Trust.
However, in a region as fragmented and historically divided as southern Africa, there is still much to be learnt from sharing experience within the region, as part of building a common understanding and identity as a region. The Southern Africa Trust will therefore support processes that build regional understanding, dialogue, networks and regional agendas relevant to the eradication of poverty and reduction of inequality in the region.
The Southern Africa Trust’s priority, nonetheless, is to support initiatives where real value is added to what can be achieved at country-level by taking a regional approach. For example, tackling malaria cannot be successfully achieved in one country if strategies are not aligned between neighbouring countries; conflict spills across borders; food security is affected by intra-regional trade; the migration of skills within the region can deepen existing inequalities, and the lack of alignment of financial market regulation means savings within southern Africa are more likely to be invested in the financial markets of developed countries than within the region.
These are all examples of areas of policy that have direct impacts on poverty, inequality and economic development in the region, but where there is a limit to how much can be achieved on a country-by-country basis; or even through cross-country learning; and where instead, real impact requires a regional approach to be taken. Where the Southern Africa Trust uses the terms ‘regionally significant’ and ‘regional approaches’, it is in this sense, and is distinct from ‘multi-country’ approaches.
Q: What do we mean by ‘civil society’? [To Top]
A:
For the Southern Africa Trust, civil society is understood broadly, to include, for example, faith-based organisations, the media, popular movements, the private sector, and other forms of constituency or interest-based organisation in society: essentially, ‘non-state actors’. The Southern Africa Trust will endeavour to support a wide cross-section of role-players in civil society, representing different interests and constituencies that are focused on overcoming poverty.
Q: What are ‘regional policy processes’? [To Top]
A:
The Southern Africa Trust uses ‘policy processes’ and ‘the development of policy’ as a shorthand for all those different processes that influence and shape the way in which public policy is developed, monitored, implemented and reviewed.
While the Southern Africa Trust’s regional focus does imply a focus on institutions with a regional remit, such as SADC, regional-level policy is also strongly influenced by outcomes at national levels, and the connection with national-level processes are often the building blocks of regional processes. The region is also strongly influenced by continental and global dynamics. The Southern Africa Trust is therefore less concerned with where intervention and support is initially targeted than on how it is expected to influence policy at regional level: and this process may not be direct or immediate.
In many contexts, the first step in supporting effective engagement in regional policy is to build capacity, understanding and policy agendas within and between constituencies or interest groups, and to facilitate regional linkages and platforms.
Q: Supporting ‘voices of the poor’? [To Top]
A:
The Southern Africa Trust sees the bargaining and negotiation over policy by different interest groups as key to building and consolidating democracy, and recognises – and will support – a wide range of interests within such processes. However, the Southern Africa Trust recognises that within many societies in the region, there are constituencies and interest groups that lack effective representation and ‘voice’ in policy processes, and that such constituencies are, to a large extent, those with the least power and resources – they are ‘the poor’. While such constituencies and their interests are by no means homogenous, the shorthand for promoting more inclusive policy-making processes is to support ‘voices of the poor’. While there are no easy short-cuts in this process, the Southern Africa Trust aims to support innovative and meaningful ways of doing this
