Countries covered
SRO-Harare covers nine countries in the Southern Africa sub-region namely Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
These countries are not only linked geographically, they also have close historical, cultural, political and economic ties. A demonstration of this interdependence is the creation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which aims at the integration of national economies and has become an important institution in shaping the future of the sub-region. Africa’s acid test will be measured by how best she is able to implement the New Partnership for African Development Action Plan as well as achieve the objectives of the newly established African Union.
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Political Situation
During the past decade, most countries of Southern Africa have undergone fundamental changes in their economic and political spheres. These changes have come about in part as a result of the pressures exerted by the ongoing democratization and economic reform processes world-wide. The dismantling of apartheid in South Africa and its replacement in 1994 by a multiparty, multiracial democracy was the major political reform of this decade in the sub-region and beyond. In Malawi and Zambia, authoritarian one party regimes gave way to multiparty democracies in the early 1990s. In Mozambique, 17 years of civil war ended in 1994, ushering in a democratic era. Zimbabwe abandoned plans to introduce a one party State officially and opted for more democratic structures about a decade ago. Botswana and Namibia have enjoyed political stability since their independence in 1966 and 1990 respectively. The Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland have also been caught up in the process of political reform.
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Problems facing the sub-region
The Southern Africa sub-region faces a number of common problems, most significantly the twin problems of high unemployment and pervasive poverty that have continued to constitute development challenges in these countries. These problems have now been compounded by the negative impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, where an estimated 20-30 per cent of the working population in all nine countries are HIV positive.
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