SADC Protocol on Gender and Development

Southern African Development Community

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was established out of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) in 1980. The SADCC Conferences were premised on political developments in Southern Africa and in 1992, the Heads of State came signed a Treaty establishing Southern African Development Community (SADC), a member state body with a broader focus on socio-economic issues as opposed to a pivoting on political issues. The focus of this new regional economic bloc centers on a regional integration agenda with economic and social developments as key areas of interest. Today membership of SADC includes Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Main Objectives of SADC are to

• To achieve development, peace and security, and economic growth,
• To alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life
• To support the socially disadvantaged
• To build democratic principles
• To obtain equitable and sustainable development

For more information go to http://www.sadc.int/

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, an instrument that has linkages to international and regional instruments calling for greater enhancement of women rights, is a key instrument for the lobby and advocacy for women’s rights to political participation and representation within SADC. The protocol has facilitated the linkages of women’s lobby and advocacy within the various SADC states from mere demands by a much ignored section of a population, to a regional state obligation and state target within SADC.

In order to create a critical mass for women’s advocacy around the 28 targets set by the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, the SADC Gender Alliance was established in 2005, to build momentum at a regional level for the adoption and implementation of the Gender and Development Protocol. The SADC Gender Alliance is a network of networks that is represented in each SADC country by a National Focal Orgnisations ( in Zimbabwe, Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe is the Country Focal organization). The Gender Alliance work is further supported by country theme clusters and which are represented at the regional level by theme cluster representatives.

The SADC Gender Alliance therefore is a loose coalition with formal elements working through national focal networks, thematic clusters and interest groups. The national focal organizations, lead theme cluster organizations and lead organizations of the interest groups form a steering committee that meets annually, during their year, the groups communicate through List-serves, teleconferences and alerts ensure regular contact within the committee.

Currently the Alliance is working on a Post 2015 Agenda around the SADC Gender Protocol on Gender and Development which comes to an end in 2015. Gender Links[1] is the Secretariat for the Alliance

Download the Protocol here.

[1] http://www.genderlinks.org.za/page/sadc-thematic-clusters