DFID Southern Africa’s Regional Plan 2006 – 2011, published in February 2006, set out the rationale for regional working and proposed a regional approach to tackling some of the challenges facing Southern Africa. The plan identified three thematic areas where DFID Southern Africa (DFID-SA) would aim to make a contribution at the regional level:

• Growth, jobs and equity
• Resilient livelihoods
• Peace and security

• Harmonisation of regional standards to facilitate trade has helped increase vegetable exports from Mozambique by more than 100% from 2007 to 2008.
• Sales by smaller-scale suppliers in South Africa and Swaziland to Shoprite/Checkers supermarket group rose by 40% in 2008-09 due to better adherence to food safety standards.
• Exports of groundnuts, cashews and birdfood from Malawi and Mozambique to Europe grew almost 11 fold from 2006 to 2008. 93% of these were fair-trade exports.
• The SADC transit management system pilot in 2008 showed an 83% reduction in customs clearance times averaging 0.5 hours (from 3 hours) and more than 40% reduction in transit times to 4 days (from 7 days).
• DFID’s Regional Standards Programme helped small growers in South Africa’s Limpopo province to be certified as producers by major European retailers resulting in a ten fold increase in production and £120,000 increase in income.
• Soul City’s innovative ‘edutainment’ programme has worked across the region using multimedia to raise awareness and change behaviour on health and social issues. This approach has been proven to contribute to increases in safer sexual behaviour, HIV testing and reduced stigma among young South Africans.
• The South African Peace Mission Training Centre was opened in November 2007 and is being used to train military and civilian personnel working on peace support missions across Africa and beyond.
• The high level North-South Corridor conference organised in April 2009 by the SADC-EAC-COMESA Tri-Partite, raised $1.2 billion in donor commitments to upgrade road, rail, ports and energy infrastructure along the NSC.
• UNICEF’s Children and AIDS Regional Initiative has strengthened national and community capacity to meet the needs of vulnerable children, increasing access to basic services and benefiting 236,595 vulnerable children in 6 countries in Southern Africa.
• River Basin Organisations in Southern Africa have been strengthened in order to improve trans-boundary water management in the region.
• Vulnerability Assessment Committees in the region have been strengthened and awareness of a range of policy options in response to chronic hunger increased.
• The Southern Africa Trust has supported civil society organisations to participate in regional policy development, and build constructive relationships with governments; and disbursed more than US$8m through 180 grants to CSOs in 14 countries.

DFID Southern Africa (DFID-SA) will spend £29 million through its regional programme in 2009/10. DFID’s Africa Regional Department, based in London, also plays an important role in Southern Africa, including through their engagement with pan-African institutions such as the African Union and NEPAD. Their pan-African programme will spend £43.85 million in 2009/10 and £74 million in 2010/11. DFID-SA and Africa Regional Department will be working in close partnership, coordinating efforts to achieve the maximum impact for Southern Africa. 

In this context, DFID-SA are beginning a process to develop our plans for 2011 and beyond, learning from and building on current foundations to deepen impact. The aim is to maximise the potential of regional working to support the reduction of poverty and tackle the challenges faced by the countries of Southern Africa.

Following this consultation, a consolidated reply addressing the key issues raised will be sent to all respondents. We will be unable to respond to individual comments.

The AU provides a platform for African countries to speak with a united voice so that Africa’s one billion people are properly represented in global negotiations which will impact on the citizens of Africa. Often the issues debated in the international arena will have a disproportionate impact on the poorest. This function of the AU was recently demonstrated in the development of the African common position on climate change, which will be the basis for Africa’s position at the Copenhagen negotiations.

The Pan-African Agenda also recognises the need for African nations to work together on economic and social development, to increase sustainable growth across the continent and lift people out of poverty. The 1991 Abuja Treaty established the African Economic Community, and set out a process for attaining African economic union. This is to be achieved through the creation of regional blocs; the establishment of free trade areas and customs unions within each of these; the completion of a continent wide customs union by 2019; a continent wide common market by 2023; leading finally to full economic and monetary union.

The AU recognises eight RECs as the building blocks and pillars of this gradual integration. Overlapping country membership of RECs is a common feature across the region.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is the programme of the AU which supports regional and continental integration and Africa’s development objectives. The Guiding Principles of NEPAD include:

• African ownership and leadership
• Promotion and protection of human rights, good governance and democracy
• Anchoring Africa’s development on the resources and resourcefulness of Africans—people-centred development
• Promotion of gender equality
• Accelerating and deepening of regional and continental economic integration
• Building a new relationship of partnership among Africans, and between Africans and the international community, especially the industrialized world, and
• A comprehensive, holistic and integrated development programme for Africa.*

*AU / NEPAD African Action Plan 2010-15 Advancing Regional and Continental Integration in Africa

This has always been an objective of DFID-SA’s regional work. In the process of developing a new regional plan, we will consider whether DFID is playing the most effective role that it can in regard to the pan-Africa agenda; and how we might enhance our support for the key regional players and institutions which drive this process.

Southern Africa’s colonial history and liberation struggles have had a strong influence in shaping relationships between the countries of the region, and have left legacies in terms of language, control of land and resources, and migration. SADC’s own origins are as a coalition of ‘frontline states’ as a defence against apartheid.

Most countries within Southern Africa are relatively recent emerging democracies with evolving governance and accountability systems. Challenges in institutional and human resource capacity are a common constraint. While the region is relatively stable, a history of conflict continues to pose challenges of post conflict reconstruction, and fragile peace processes. Personal insecurity is a fact of life for many Southern Africans, and inequalities and scarce resources are risk factors for new types of conflict to erupt.

Inequalities within countries are echoed at the regional level by imbalances between Southern African states. South Africa makes up more than 60% of the region’s GDP. As the strongest economy on the continent, South Africa is a magnet for multi national companies to come to Southern Africa, as well as an important investor in its neighbours in its own right.

Furthermore it has a unique role among African states as a member of the G20 and an influential role in the World Trade Organisation in the India, Brazil, South Africa group.

Despite the complexity of relationships, countries are highly interdependent, demonstrated by high levels of small scale cross border trade. Agriculture is a key element of growth and livelihoods across the region, but lack of successful land reform and poor access to land amongst women limits its potential in both arenas.

The region is classified as water scarce, and predicted to become water stressed by 2016. Food insecurity is also very high in more than half the states in the region, set to deteriorate with the effects of climate change, HIV and AIDS, and limited trade. Climate change is also a risk in terms of the spread of malaria, which is already a major cause of mortality and ill health in the region.