Speech
28 February 2006
Launch of DFID Southern Africa Regional Plan
Address by Minouche Shafik, Director General Regional Programmes, DFID
Welcome
Want to thank you all for coming to help us launch an exciting new plan – the
Southern Africa Regional Plan – which will bring fundamental changes to the way
in which our Southern Africa regional office will do business in the future.
G8
2005 was a significant year for Africa, and for those of us who work with
African partners, to make poverty history. The agreements reached at Gleneagles
by G8 and African leaders together were comprehensive and ambitious.
DFID committed and determined to deliver on these commitments. When Prime Minister visited
here just a few weeks ago, he emphasised that the UK government was going to do
all we could to take forward those commitments and deliver.
Regional Plan
The Commission for Africa concluded, and Gleneagles underlined, that regional
approaches had an important role in enabling many countries to access markets;
get an entry to global markets; access vital social services, including skills
to deliver functioning health systems and schools.
Regional public goods, such as roads and rail networks, ports, energy and
communications, are important for people to trade and do business, and access
social services.
Peace and security are vital for countries to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). But conflicts across Africa are not confined to one country.
HIV and AIDS affects all countries in Southern Africa and its impact is felt
across the region – through migration, and through the labour market, for
example.
DFID believes that regional approaches can create benefits for countries in ways
that they may not be able to achieve on their own. They don’t replace country
led solutions. But they do complement them.
Southern Africa
Southern Africa has the highest HIV and AIDS prevalence rate in the world.
Humanitarian needs are escalating, particularly food insecurity. Over 70% of
people in the region depend on agriculture in some way and those livelihoods are
increasingly vulnerable. Economic development is unequal.
There is also huge commitment to economic and social development; a range of
regional institutions which have an important role to play in ensuring that
regional approaches can work. And South Africa is of course critical to Southern
Africa’s economic and human development.
What will the UK do
The Plan describes exactly what we plan to achieve and who we want to work
with to achieve it. We need a strong partnership with South Africa, particularly
on its own plans for development in the region. We want to work with regional
institutions, including SADC, and help to build the capacity that is needed to
take this forward. We are firmly behind the African Union (AU)/New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NePAD) programme. And we want to ensure that what we
do is aligned with priorities set by AU-NePAD.
We plan to give support in a limited number of areas, where we think the UK
could make a distinctive contribution. They include:
- Growth, jobs and equity. Our PM emphasised in particular his
commitment to do more on trade. We want to work with South African
supermarkets to help regional suppliers meet their standards. We will
help to set up at least 3 one-stop border posts in the region, working
with Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market of
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the South African revenue
service. And we want to support infrastructure development, aiming for a
24% reduction in transport costs for landlocked countries by 2010.
- Resilient livelihoods. We want to support Governments to set up and
expand safety net programmes so that they can help more people who are
hungry. We want to support the development of transboundary river basin
authorities. We want to look at climate change, which is a totally new
area for us at the regional level. We want to develop support for the
prevention of infectious diseases, through support to the WHO, UN
system, and SADC. And we want to support centres of excellence which can
develop new responses and solutions.
- Peace and Security. We want to help strengthen SADC’s core capacity;
to work with South Africa and other countries in the region to resolve
conflict across the continent. And we want to help reduce the risk of
violent conflict.
Conclusion
If you want to find out how we’re going to do all this, then you need to read
the plan! – and talk to the DFID staff who are circulating here tonight. I know
they are all looking forward to working with all of you as we take forward this
ambitious programme. Thanks again for your support throughout the time we have
spent developing the plan. In a year’s time I want us be able to meet again and
celebrate a successful beginning.
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