Under the overall mandate to reduce poverty and vulnerability, Switzerland supports the Southern Africa region in the following thematic domains:

Agriculture/Food Security

The overall goal of the domain is increased resilience in food security, in particular of smallholder farmers in SADC region. By increasing production through qualitative seeds, reducing post harvest losses and having better prepared member states to respond to food crisis, the food insecurity in the region should be better tackled. SDC supported interventions aim at changes on the level of policies and institutions as well as on the level of the target population of smallholder farmers. Where appropriate, private sector development partnerships will be sought. The following three outcome areas have been defined for 2013-2016:

• Improved availability, accessibility and quality of seeds: the expected outcome from interventions supported by RPSA 2013-2016 in this area is the national adoption of a harmonised SADC Seed Systems in selected countries that facilitates regional availability and access to quality seeds for smallholder farmers. This outcome shall contribute to the SADC regional objective of achieving sustainable access to safe and adequate food for all people in the region.
• Post harvest management: considering the positive experiences acquired in other parts of the world and the priority of those issues given by SADC, SDC will as well engage on post harvest management. The expected outcome here is the reduction of post harvest losses and increase of small holders’ income through informed policy, capacity building and appropriate technology.
• Disaster Risk Reduction: the expected outcome of interventions supported by RPSA 2013-2016 in this area is that member states and/or farmers use risk reductions instruments, insurance and social protection mechanisms for food security planning and interventions in a coordinated manner. This includes improvement of early warning systems, vulnerability assessment, safety nets and coordination mechanism at regional level. This outcome is aligned to the regional objective of addressing chronic and temporary vulnerability to the diversity of food security risks and economic change as included in the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy.

HIV/AIDS

Prevention of HIV/AIDS among young women and men and access to care and support remain at the centre of SDC’s HIV/AIDS interventions to contribute to the overall goal of reducing HIV/AIDS incidence and vulnerabilities in particular among children and youth. This requires support at institutional and policy level as well as at the level of the target population. SDC supported interventions in this domain are closely linked to poverty reduction, with poverty being a major cause as well as a consequence of HIV/AIDS.

• Prevention: interventions supported by RPSA 2013-2016 in this area shall result in increased knowledge and competencies of adolescents and children on HIV/AIDS prevention, enhanced awareness on sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as better access to services through youth and gender sensitive information and rights-based approaches. At policy level the SDC will support SADC regional and national policies/legislation to address youth-friendly prevention needs and services based on the SADC HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework 2010-2015: “All member states have in place effective evidence based and coordinated responses to HIV prevention needs of youth, men, women, infants and other populations at particular risks in 2015.”
• Care and support: by 2016 vulnerable children and youth have increased access to care and support through the adoption of relevant policies in targeted SADC countries. Improved awareness for the specific needs and challenges of HIV/AIDS affected children and adequate policy frameworks in relevant ministries to target these needs with appropriate tools will help children, their caregivers and communities to cope with the challenges they are facing. Swiss support in this respect is aligned to the SADC HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework 2010-2015 which states that “A coordinated, sustainable multi-sector response to strengthen community coping and social protection in order to address the needs of children, OVCY and caregivers in place by 2015”.

Transversal themes

Governance as transversal theme will enhance an equitable, responsible and accountable allocation and use of public resources in agriculture/food security and HIV/AIDS. Other principles as transparency, participation, non-discrimination and rule of law will be considered. SDC will facilitate mechanisms and support specific initiatives to strengthen domain governance through the oversight and claim making roles of parliaments and civil society including farmers’ organizations at regional level and in selected countries in both domains of interventions.

Gender: in agriculture women farmers play an important role as food producers and food providers with specific tasks, responsibilities and needs that are to be taken into consideration with interventions to increase nutrition and food security. In HIV/AIDS the vulnerability of women and girls is higher in comparison to men, and causes and consequences are gender-specific. SDC together with partners will improve gender-sensitive planning and targeting, services, tools and approaches to address such gender-specific dimensions in Food security and HIV/AIDS as part of the overall goal of poverty reduction.

The Global Programme Climate Change (GPCC)

Responding to Climate Change impacts has become a global priority. The impacts associated with global temperature increases will undermine global progress made on development interventions and poverty alleviation efforts, particularly to the vulnerable and poor communities in developing countries. Thus response measures are required to avoid the unmanageable through mitigation efforts and to manage the unavoidable through adaptation efforts. The GPCC is SDC’s programme linking policy dialogue with concrete mitigation and adaptation actions. The programme is actively engaged in China, India, South Africa as well as the Andean region. The overall objective of the GPCC mitigation programme is to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases by supporting low carbon development pathways in developing countries. The specific Mitigation Programme for South Africa will focus on Energy Efficiency in the Building Sector.

Engagement in Zimbabwe

In accordance with the humanitarian mandate (protection, IDPs, cholera) and development objectives (health system, state building, etc.) and depending on the political context evolution Zimbabwe’s transition process will further be supported and increased. Development cooperation will be reinforced with a medium perspective, whereas Humanitarian Aid will gradually be reduced to the extent possible. SDC will continue its engagement in agriculture/food security and HIV/AIDS.