(a) Report on Integration of Gender in Development Programmes in Southern African Countries

51. The Committee considered the "Report on Integration of Gender in Development Programmes in Southern African Countries". The report highlighted the objectives of the report which are to: implement in Southern Africa, the strategy for advancing gender equality and equity through gender mainstreaming; support the implementation of the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development; and integrate gender into development programmes in Southern African countries.

52. The report showed the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, especially among women and children, necessitating the SRDC/SA to organize in November 2000, an Ad Hoc Experts Group Meeting on Gender Networking to Control HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. It noted that experts at the ad hoc meeting found the SADC HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework not gender-responsive. Addressing the pandemic through a gender responsive approach was deemed necessary in order to maximize the complementarity of the skills of both men and women. To that end, the experts drew up an action plan for engendering the Framework which constitutes a process of operationalizing it.

53. Immediate follow-up action includes two activities to be implemented in 2001. One would involve engaging a Team of Experts to substantively engender the framework; the second would be the organization of a workshop for the SADC HIV/AIDS Sector Coordinators and other stakeholders with a view to sensitizing, internalizing and instilling ownership of the action plan. In order to accommodate this activity, the ICE was requested to take note that the SRDC-SA had to reformulate the activity in 2000-2001 Work Programme: Training of Trainers for Women in Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Legal Literacy [Output 16A.III (d) in order to organize the workshop.

54. The representative from ESAMI informed the meeting of a model for gender mainstreaming and engendering sectoral policies which was developed for all SADC sectors. He offered to provide the model for use by ECA. The meeting noted the report with a recommendation on the need to adopt a multi-sectoral approach in gender mainstreaming.

(b) Report on National Mechanism for Coordination of Regional Cooperation and Integration in Southern Africa

55. The Committee considered the document entitled "Report on National Mechanism for Coordination of Regional Cooperation and Integration, which noted that, although regional cooperation and integration have been the foundation for Africa's economic and social development, efforts to bring about a fundamental socioeconomic structural change in Africa had often been frustrated by domestic and external factors. As a result, the countries of the subregion continued to experience limited structural changes, social transformation and economic growth. In addition, the fact that most countries belonged to more than one of the regional groupings, exerted further pressure on the already limited resources for deepening the integration process.

56. In this context, the Economic Commission for Africa Subregional Development Centre for Southern Africa (UNECA/SRDC-SA) planed to undertake a study to assess existing national mechanisms for coordination of regional cooperation and integration in Southern Africa. The study would be presented to an Ad Hoc Experts Group Meeting in June 2001 and would be an integral part of the regional study, which was coordinated by the Regional Cooperation and Integration Division (RCID) of ECA.

57. The objective of the Ad Hoc Experts Group Meeting will be to review existing national mechanisms for regional cooperation and integration in Southern Africa, and make appropriate recommendations to minimize cost and increase the benefits of regional cooperation and integration in Southern Africa. The discussions from the meeting would form the basis for a policy document suggesting appropriate mechanisms for coordination of regional economic cooperation and integration at national level.

58. In terms of coordination arrangements at national level, it appeared that the establishment of a Coordinating Ministry for each cooperation institution was the most common practice in Southern Africa. In the light of the above, the following questions should be addressed:

	.	Should all the countries aim at having a single mechanism for regional cooperation and integration? If yes, what was the best possible approach to ensuring effective coordination at country level?
	.	Pre- and Post-meetings preparedness, though different in most countries, seemed to be important and necessary for coordination of national positions. What was the best approach to ensuring these consultations?
	.	Follow-up actions were not properly stated. What was the best approach for effective implementation of agreed positions?
	.	Preparation and presentation of the meeting reports was also not clearly stated. Who should prepare these reports? How should the report be prepared? Where should the report go? And for what purposes?
	.	In most of the preparatory processes the Civil Society and private Sector had no specific roles whereby they could also participate and discus issues pertaining to integration and the way they affected their operations. What was the best approach to ensuring effective private sector participation in decision-making processes for regional cooperation and integration?

59. The Committee sought clarifications about the objectives of the study and expressed concern as to why the Secretariat was not presenting a concrete proposal on a mechanism to member States for consideration. The Committee further pointed out that involvement of the Private Sector and Civil Society organisations should be formalized at institutional level to facilitate their active participation in the integration process. The example of MERCOSUR was highlighted. In addition, the meeting was also informed that Civil Society, particularly women and labour groups, were actively participating in SADC Sectoral Meetings, for example Gender and ELS.

60. The Secretariat informed the Committee that the report was mainly to brainstorm on the issues raised and to obtain proposals from the member States in order to finalize the paper which will be presented to the Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting. It further informed the Committee that ADF 2001 will be on the theme "Regional Integration in Africa" at which Southern African countries are called upon to provide a subregional position paper.

61. The Committee considered the report as very important, and encouraged ECA to proceed with the study and come up with some best practices from which member States could draw some lessons. The Commitee took note of the report in light of the above observations.

(c) Report on Food Security and Sustainable Development (Environment, Population, Agriculture) in Southern Africa

62. The Meeting considered the document entitled "Report on Food Security and Sustainable Development (Environment, Population, Agriculture) in Southern Africa", abridged version whose objective was to review the status of food security in Southern Africa in the context of sustainable development in relation to population, agriculture and environment. The review covered an analysis of food situation over recent years; interaction among population growth, food security, food production, environment and sustainable development; and initiatives to address food security.

63. The report stressed that in addressing issues of food security and sustainable development in Southern Africa, attention needed to be given to: reducing poverty through rural development as an overall priority goal; increasing socio-economic growth and ensuring equitable distribution of growth; improving health and education of the population; empowering women to actively participate in socio-economic development; ensuring participation of all stakeholders in programmes; and maintaining peace and stability.

64. The report noted that in some developing countries, population growth contributed to more than 70 per cent to growth in food demand. As the majority of the population in Southern Africa depended on agriculture, population growth would continue to increase population density on agricultural land per household. In some of the counties, arable land was already very limited. Consequently, further pressure from population growth would increase the number of the landless population. The situation was worse where people who were already using marginal lands which required higher production costs - more use of fertilizers which the poor could not afford.

65. Other factors that negatively affected food security and sustainable development in Southern Africa included low status of women; poor health and the impact of HIV/AIDS; poverty; low application of science and technological innovations in agriculture and food production; poor infrastructure; weak extension services, marketing and distribution of inputs; and wars and disasters.

66. The report urged member States to address these constraints seriously and it proposed specific recommendations. Among these were: implementation of policies to enhance the role and status of women with regard to education, family planning and reproductive health, ownership of land and access to credit facilities; inclusion of women in the policy making process; ensuring that extension and technical services are extended to women producers; prevention of further spread of HIV/AIDS; reducing the levels of poverty by creation of secure gainful employment to the economically active population; ensuring equal access to productive resources; linking socio-economic development sectors so as to enhance the synergies of various policies towards sustainable development; applying affordable technologies and innovations, including irrigation, to assist farmers improve productivity, post-harvest losses, food storage and processing; improving the infrastructure in general to support food production and marketing; and creating a peaceful and stable environment, conducive to food security and sustainable development.

67. The meeting was thus called upon to urge member States to consider food security and sustainable development as one of the priority goals and take concrete action to ensure that in addressing food security and sustainable development, they take into account all other factors that have both direct and indirect impact on food security and sustainable development.

68. In the discussions, the Committee underscored the importance of food security as one of the priority goals of socio-economic development, noting especially that poor people were hungry people and the hungry were poor. Thus, food security was not only an issue of agriculture. Job opportunities for employment was part of the issues to be addressed to ensure access to food. Linking various national policies towards common economic and social development goals was underscored as important in the quest towards food security and sustainable development. In this context, the population, environment, development and agriculture (PEDA) model was seen as a useful advocacy tool on the linkages and policy implications for food security.

69. The Committee appealed to member States in the subregion to work towards formulation of a common position on issues of sustainable development at the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in South Africa in 2002. The Committee, in this regard, appealed to ECA to take the lead in assisting member States for preparation of common African position.

70. The Committee further stressed that although most countries in the subregion had policies on food security, these policies were not being implemented due to a number of factors including weak capacity for implementation, inadequate resource mobilization to implement these polices as well as weak national commitment. It was in this context that FAO was organizing a World Food Summit in Rome, from 5-9 November, 2001 as follow-up to the 1996 World Summit to stimulate political commitment as well as enhance resource mobilization for effective implementation of programmes and policies. At that meeting member States would be reporting on actions taken to implement the 1996 World Food Summit Plan of Action.

71. Subregional and regional trade was also underlined as crucial in addressing food security. The Committee noted that WTO had just completed taking stock of the issue for renegotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA). The Committee stressed the importance of African Countries to actively participate in the WTO negotiations on the AOA starting April 2001.

72. The Committee also took note of the forthcoming meeting of African Ministers of Agriculture to be held from 21st to 22nd April, 2001 in Lome, Togo, at which representatives from ministries of Agriculture and Commerce and Trade will deliberate on Food Strategies in Africa. The meeting was informed that the paper on Food Strategies in Africa, prepared by FAO for discussion, could be obtained from the Ministries of Agriculture in each country or from FAO representative offices.

73. The Committee endorsed the report and the recommendations.

(d) Report on the Pilot Project in Zambia on the Informal Sector Development in Africa

74. The Committee considered the document entitled "Project for the Promotion of the Informal Sector for Development in Africa", initiated and implemented by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and funded by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Project aims at creating an environment for the informal sector operators to increase their contribution to the socio-economic development of their countries.

75. The long-term objective of the ECA in this project is to contribute to the process of socio-economic development in Africa through the expansion of the role of the informal sector. Its immediate objective is to sensitize decision-makers in several African countries to the need to improve the informal sector's enabling environment. In achieving the objectives, the Project aims to assist: the micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to learn how to solve their own problems, and to play a more prominent role in the socio-economic development of the African countries.

76. The Project's target group are informal sector operators (ISOs), in particular the micro and small entrepreneurs (MSEs), usually considered to be the same as micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and it applies a participatory approach using group methodology. It is process oriented, dialogue-oriented and aims at raising the competence of the participants.

77. It was emphasized that most African countries faced high rate of unemployment. As a result, most of the people are trying to establish their own businesses. It is for this reason that the objectives and approach of the project could be utilised by other African countries in their efforts to promote the Informal Sector. Once the Informal Sector has been developed in the countries, they will go a long way to contribute towards the economies of many African countries.

78. The Committee expressed appreciation and great interest in the project. There was extended debate on the terminology "informal sector" as a category of economic activity. The Committee expressed the need to establish specific benchmarks demarcating the informal from formal sectors so as to eliminate unfair competition between them. Questions were also raised on the sustainability of the Project in Zambia after its current phase. It suggested that the activities could be incorporated into another project or alternatively that the current project staff form an NGO to carry forward the activities of the Project.

79. The Mozambican representative informed the meeting that his country was implementing a similar project, but contrary to the experiences in other countries, it was the government which is implementing the project and not an NGO. In Mozambique the project also assist families.

80. The Secretariat informed the Committee that selection criteria of beneficiaries was mainly done on the basis of being a private operator involved in productive activities, employing less than five people and with small capital. It further informed the committee that there would be a Subregional Workshop on Informal Sector in Lusaka by mid-2001. At this Workshop member States will be informed about other aspects for running the project.

81. The Secretariat sounded the meeting that any interested member State should contact the Centre for further information on how to get the project implemented in their respective countries. The Committee took note of the report in light of the above observations.