SADC

Civil society contributions towards the
SADC Poverty and Development Conference

In August 2006, the SADC Summit decided to hold a SADC International Conference on Poverty and Development. The idea of this Conference was motivated by the high levels of poverty observed in the SADC region where the majority of the population live on less than 1$ a day. In the meantime, SADC members have committed themselves to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) complements national initiatives to achieve this objective.
The SADC Conference on Poverty and Development is envisaged as a multi-stakeholder strategic dialogue that would give the opportunity to reflect and adopt innovative approaches to the region’s poverty eradication strategies. It will provide a platform for SADC, International Cooperating Partners (ICP’s), civil society, the private sector and the international community to engage in policy dialogue, forge consensus and review progress of the SADC integration agenda.
SADC countries have made poverty reduction the central objective of national development policies. At the national level, the Poverty Reduction Strategies serve as a basis for countries to set their development agenda through a consultative and participatory process, to define targets and monitor progress using MDGs as benchmarks. Although the RISDP and Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO) have articulated development areas in the SADC region, they have not highlighted how poverty is being eradicated.
Therefore, the objectives of the SADC Conference on Poverty and development are:

To discuss the regional dimensions of poverty in the SADC region and their linkages with national poverty reduction strategies;
To forge consensus on the key elements of a regional poverty reduction and economic integration strategy with stakeholders
To develop an action plan on poverty and development, outlining a series of specific tasks and actions and monitoring and evaluation mechanism;
To re-mobilize the international community in particular the developed countries to live up to their commitments in regard to increasing the levels of development aid;
To mobilize resources both at regional and international levels to meet economic and social adjustment costs and implement regional poverty-oriented programmes;
To lay out the foundations for a new global partnership for SADC that accelerates momentum for the region to achieve MDGs targets.

In order to ensure a successful Conference, it is envisaged that a participatory process is pursued drawing together, the SADC institutions and Member States, the private sector, civil society, and the International Cooperating Partners.
As an agency that supports civil society organisations in southern Africa to participate effectively and with credibility in policy dialogue so that the voices of the poor can have a better impact in the development of public policies, the Southern Africa Trust is supporting civil society organisations in the preparation of this Conference. For this purpose, the Trust is supporting civil society consultations in Country Members and the regional consultation of civil society organisations in the SADC region. The objective of these national consultations is the articulation of a civil society input towards the SADC Conference. The Trust’s key objectives for its active engagement in this process are as follows:

Putting poverty eradication at the top of the regional policy and political agenda;
Developing a shared (across social sectors) regional vision for overcoming poverty;
Developing an official SADC regional poverty reduction strategy;
Modelling and building capacity for an inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement method for policy development and implementation in SADC; and
Building the capacity of civil society organisations to prepare evidence-based policy positions, to participate credibly in policy development, and to ensure practical and effective implementation and monitoring mechanisms for a plan of action to overcome poverty.

With regard to the SADC conference’s objectives, national consultations are expected, among others:

To consolidate national strategies to address poverty, based on the poverty reduction strategies and to link these national strategies to the regional strategies;
To align national and regional action plans on poverty and development

The national consultations are being conducted in 14 countries of SADC with a multi-stakeholder approach. They should involve all the civil society constituencies such as nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), private sector, community-based organisations (CBOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs), Trade unions, youth movements, women associations, and actors, such as academics, research centres, etc.
All civil society national consultations will take place before the end of January 2008 in time for the regional civil society consultation early February 2008.