SADC concludes 25th summit
22 August 2005
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state and government summit concluded on Thursday with a number of resolutions on economic development, HIV/Aids, debt relief, food security and political issues facing the region.
The summit, held at Gaborone in Botswana on 17 and 18 August, marked the 25th year of SADC's existence.
Delegates welcomed the debt-relief proposals announced by the G8 countries in July, but noted the need for details on a programme for debt relief, which will benefit some SADC member states.
"Delegates observed that for most member states to achieve the millennium development goals, there is an urgent need for SADC countries to institute policies and programmes aimed at accelerating social and human development, individually and collectively," the SADC said in a statement after the summit.
They also called on international cooperating partners to increase resources channelled to developing
countries to finance education, health and social development activities.
"With regard to food security, the summit noted that the region was self-sufficient in maize despite deficits in a few countries.
"In this respect, the summit urged the affected member states to mobilise resources to import food that may be required to prevent incidence of hunger and starvation," the statement said.
The summit also urged member states to honour commitments in the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, to accelerate agricultural production and eradication of food insecurity in the region.
"On HIV and Aids the summit noted that the main activities and interventions undertaken during the year included the development of policy options for mainstreaming the disease and mitigating Aids's adverse impact on agriculture and food security; formulation of guidelines on [the disease] and mobile populations; guidelines to conduct household surveys on HIV and
Aids; a model for mainstreaming orphans and vulnerable children in the education system and the establishment of regional forum for national aids authorities," the statement said.
The meeting also observed that regional interventions were complementary to national HIV/Aids prevention and support programmes.
Member states have continued to roll-out antiretroviral therapies and the prevention of the transmission of the virus from mother to child, and were strengthening voluntary counselling and testing as well as surveillance of the epidemic.
In terms of gender and development, the summit endorsed the African Union position that sets a 50% target of women in all political and decision-making positions.
Source: BuaNews
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