SADC Must Strengthen Response to HIV/AIDS

(BuaNews)-The Southern African Development Community (SADC) must strengthen its regional response in the fight against HIV and AIDS, says United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka.

She points out that while the commitment is there, there is still a need to mobilise and redefine strategies for the region to become more effective in delivering and keeping the promise to deal with HIV and AIDS.

Ms Mataka said on Thursday that governments in the region should put in place measurable time-bound projects in national plans and proposals.

The envoy, who is also Vice-Chairperson of the Global Fund Board, observed that there were many things that the region could do well in the prevention and treatment of the pandemic.

Ms Mataka, who is also the Zambia National AIDS Network (ZNAN) Executive Director, said there was a need to measure progress made in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Africa and the SADC region in particular.

She noted that Africa and the SADC region needed to exploit all stakeholders and to fully and properly package a wide range of information for the benefit of all.

SADC has been in existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine majority-ruled States in Southern Africa known as the SADCC, with the main aim of co-ordinating development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa.

The founding member states are Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was formed in Lusaka, Zambia, on 1 April 1980, following the adoption of the Lusaka Declaration - Southern Africa: Towards Economic Liberation.

The transformation of the organisation from a Coordinating Conference into a Development Community (SADC) took place on 17 August 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia when the Declaration and Treaty was signed at the summit, giving the organisation a legal character.

The member states are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC headquarters are located in Gaborone, Botswana.

The SADC vision is one of a common future, a future in a regional community that will ensure economic well-being, improving standards of living and quality of life, freedom and social justice and peace and security for the peoples of Southern Africa.

This shared vision is anchored on the common values and principles and the historical and cultural affinities that exist between the peoples of Southern Africa.

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