Published by the government of Zimbabwe
22 August 2007
Harare — Two Zimbabwean high school pupils did Zimbabwe proud when they won the first and second prizes in the 2007 Sadc Schools Essay Competition at the just-ended Sadc Summit in Lusaka, Zambia.
Today we reproduce the winning entry by Diana Kawendu of Mabelreign Girls' High School, who was accorded the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to read her essay in front of the 14 Sadc Heads of State and Government gathered for the 27th Summit at Mulungushi International Conference Centre.
THE Southern African Development Community was formerly called the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference. It was initiated in an attempt to achieve economic independence, economic growth and development in the sub-region.
As clearly stated by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos: "Our unity of effort in the struggle for economic independence of our people becomes the necessary condition to guarantee our own sovereignty and security. The successes which Sadcc can achieve constitute a great contribution to the struggle of the peoples of Southern Africa against oppression, exploitation and discrimination."
The Southern African Development Community initially was based on economic growth. It wanted to reduce economic dependence and forge links to create genuine and equitable regional integration. The member states also wanted to mobilise the region's resources in order to promote implementation of national, interstate and regional policies. They also wanted concerted action to secure international co-operation within the overall strategy of economic liberation.
The summit of heads of state and government headed the former SADCC. It was aided by the Council of Ministers and, lastly, there was a committee that included officials from member countries. In order to ensure that all member states shared all responsibilities of co-ordinating the activities of SADCC, a programme of action was put in place.
There were nine member states. Angola was responsible for energy conservation and development; Botswana was given responsibility for agricultural research and animal disease control; Malawi was in charge of fisheries, wildlife and forestry; Mozambique was accountable for the transport and communication of the region's development.
Swaziland was given responsibility for human resources development with the help of Tanzania that was responsible for industrial development. Zambia was responsible for mining and the Southern African development fund. Zimbabwe was responsible for food security.
With the independence of Namibia in 1989 and South Africa in 1994 the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference was transformed into the Southern African Development Community. Sadc also wanted to promote political co-operation among member states and the evolution of common political value systems and institutions.
The Sadc also aimed at the enhancement of the development of democratic institutions and also the promotion of peace. Presently, Sadc comprises 14 countries as follows: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, the Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Sadc region's group members can also be termed as the low economically developed countries. Poverty is one of the main features of the latter countries. Poverty is defined as the state of being poor or lack of money or goods.
Poverty is characterised by conditions of shortages of basic social services such as hospitals, education, existence of shantytowns, high birth rates and death rates due to pandemics, notably HIV/Aids and inadequate nutrition.
"In developing countries, one person in three lives in poverty. Even basic social services, primary healthcare, basic education, safe drinking water and adequate nutrition are not available to more than one billion people," says the 1999 Human Development Report.
Most member group countries experience lack of education facilities and thus leading to high crime levels and prostitution, which is also a sign of poverty. In most poor countries, poverty is the biggest driver of the Aids pandemic.
Since the mid-80s when HIV/Aids was identified in most countries of the region, there has been a rapid increase in the numbers of adults and children infected with, and dying from HIV and Aids, with a corresponding adverse impact on the socio-economic development of the region.HIV/Aids is now arresting or even reversing the major socio-economic gains of the past two decades in such areas as health, agriculture and education.
Health caresystems are overwhelmed with HIV/Aids patients with the result that health workers are overburdened, health care costs are escalating and acute conditions are being "crowded out". Conditions such as tuberculosis (TB) which were almost being brought under control in the 1970s have re-emerged as a result of the HIV/Aids epidemic, further straining the overstretched health care systems.
South African President Thabo Mbeki is on record as saying: "The cause of Aids becoming a pandemic in sub-Saharan region is because of poverty." So one feature of poverty is the prevalence of diseases, not only Aids, but also water-borne diseases.
Poverty within the Southern African region has been caused by flooding. For example, Mozambique has been a victim of recurring floods. This has caused widespread poverty in the country as evidenced by massive crop destruction, resulting in people being undernourished and loss of infrastructure, including roads and homes, leaving thousands homeless or living in shantytowns.
Drought has also contributed to poverty in the Southern African region. It has lowered water levels in dams powering hydro-power stations, leading to an energy crisis that has translated into intermittent power cuts and load-shedding in some countries.
This has also affected investment and has threatened expansion plans of companies that have invested within the region. To some extent it has resulted in the closure of many manufacturing industries and by so doing creating unemployment which, in turn, condemns millions to a life of poverty.
There are some political reasons for poverty in the Southern African region. The colonisation of Africa robbed the indigenous people of their means of production -- land -- which was the cornerstone of the African continent's economy.
Poverty struck Africans to an extent that they were perceived as tools for the provision of labour. The dispossession of Africans left them settling in arid lands where crop cultivation was difficult, leading to poverty.
Lack of basic education is another major cause of poverty in the Southern African region. The levels of illiteracy in the member group states are quite high. It is because of lack of knowledge the people in this region cannot develop themselves. Even though some have the opportunity to acquire knowledge, knowledge that the Southern African region provides is the semi-skilled employment.
Although some countries like Zimbabwe have set up practical subjects in schools like woodwork and technical graphics, the setting up of such an education system that was meant for the semi-skilled is actually colonially inclined. This form of education has found some being retrenched and left unemployed resulting in loss of income and poverty.
Another economic factor that has contributed to poverty is the inability by some member states to attract capital investment. This has contributed to the lack of capital. To some extent this has led to inflation, which also discourages capital investment and economic growth.
Gender imbalance in the society is still a contributing factor to poverty. There is still need for women within the Sadc region to be empowered and elevated to decision-making positions in both the public and private sectors.
Zimbabwe and South Africa are leading the way in gender equity. Both have female vice-presidents, namely Mrs Joice Mujuru and Mrs Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. All 14 member countries also boast a number of female Cabinet ministers.
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