The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary, His Excellency Mr. Elias Magosi officially launched the Gender Equality Seal in the SADC Secretariat, today, the 16th of October 2024 in Gaborone, Botswana.
The SADC Secretariat in collaboration with the UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa (RSCA) and with the support of the African Union Commission (AUC) conducted a training on the Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions (GES-PI), targeting the SADC Secretariat Gender Equality Committee and the SADC Gender Focal Points.
The objectives of the training were to introduce and increase knowledge, understanding and skills of the SADC team on implementation of the Gender Equality Seal.
n his remarks, the Executive Secretary stated that the Secretariat is committed to Gender equality and women’s empowerment and acknowledges gender as critical in achieving the regional integration agenda. “We recognise gender as both a development enabler and a cross sectoral area as enshrined in Article 4 and Article 5 (1)K of the SADC Treaty. We further recognise it as a critical goal for community building and realisation of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Plan 2020-2030 (RISDP) and consider it as cross cutting, permeating all the fundamental pillars of the regional integration agenda”. In this regard, he highlighted that the obligation is on all institutional structures and mechanism of SADC to respond proactively and take positive measures to integrate gender equality issues and concerns, as well as uproot inequalities in all spheres and at all levels.
To enable the Secretariat to fulfill this task, regional instruments aligned to continental and international commitments were put in place. For instance, the SADC Common Vision 2050 complements the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the African Union Agenda 2063. Which envisions “a SADC where women and men are optimally engaged and lead in the drive for its development- through being empowered to actively participate in all aspects of society with full access to socio-economic opportunities.”
The training was technically supported by the UNDP Regional Service for Africa and to roll-out the Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions within the SADC Secretariat.
