REGIONAL INDIC ATIVE STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PL AN 4 1 and health services delivery in the region. It proposes illness and deaths on production, productivity and policies, strategies and priorities in various areas such as economic decline of the Member States. The Biennial health research and surveillance; health information Priorities which include the HIV and AIDS/STD; system; health promotion and education; HIV and AIDS reproductive health; standardization of health inform- and sexually transmitted diseases; communicable and ation and surveillance systems; communicable diseases; non-communicable disabilities; and resource mobilization (human, financial) have been resources developed to facilitate implementation of the Protocol. development; nutrition and food safety; violence and However, they may not fully address all the issues substance abuse. contained in the Protocol. reproductive disease health; health control; human The SADC Protocol on Health, which was signed in There is need therefore, to have a long term plan to fit August 1999 and is yet to come into force, provides a legal with international agreements and initiatives such as the and broad policy framework for cooperation in twenty Millennium Development Goals of: reducing child four (24) areas, which include some of the major health malnutrition by half between 1990 and 2015; reducing challenges in the region such as HIV and AIDS and STD; child mortality by two-thirds by 2015; reduce maternal Tuberculosis Control; Malaria Control; Reproductive mortality by three-quarters by 2015; and halving and Health; Childhood and Adolescent Health; Chronic reversing the HIV and AIDS prevalence by 2015. Diseases; Emergency Health Services and Disaster Management and bulk purchasing of essential drugs. Implementation and achievements of such actions have been measured against the objectives of the In recognition of the serious threat that HIV and AIDS Protocol. Therefore, policies, plans, programmes of the continues to pose to sustainable development of the region Health Sector need to give operational expression to the and its integration agenda, SADC has revised and objectives of the Protocol. Thus, in reviewing this sector, strengthened its Multi-sectoral HIV and AIDS Strategic activities that have been implemented and achievements Framework and Programme of Action 2003-2007. This that have been realised have been juxtaposed with the Strategic Framework is a multi-dimensional response to the appropriate Protocol objective. It must be said from the HIV and AIDS pandemic by the region. It is aimed at outset that the Protocol objectives do satisfy the agenda intensifying measures and actions to address the for a regional approach to tackling health challenges. devastating and pervasive impact of the HIV and AIDS Also, it is clear that improving the health status of the pandemic in a comprehensive and complementary way. The focus of the response is both on the prevention of HIV and AIDS and on the mitigation of its impact in order to ensure sustainable human development in Member States. The Framework takes into account and reflects the people in the region will directly result in increased production and productivity (for example by reducing the number of work-days lost through illness or caring for the sick and attending funerals). This will result in higher growth rates and therefore poverty reduction. priorities of the new organisational arrangements of the 3.5.3.3 restructured SADC, which clusters related issues into core areas of regional cooperation and integration. It also builds on the experience of the previous Plan for HIV and AIDS, the SADC HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework and Programme of Action, 2000-2004. Challenges in the Policies and Strategies There are many health challenges facing the region. These include new serious diseases and epidemics, high morbidity and mortality rates, low nutrition status, poor health care infrastructure and services, lack of well trained health care personnel, poor living conditions, and 3.5.3.2 Evaluation of Current Policies and Strategies the HIV and AIDS pandemic. A growing number of TB and other communicable diseases such as malaria, typhoid, Implementation of actions based on the Protocol has cholera and an increasing number of non-communicable already started. The Protocol itself does fulfil the diseases such as cancer and hypertension have integration objectives of the SADC i.e. it definitely aims to compounded the problem. In addition, inadequate tackle HIV and AIDS and in so doing reduce the impact of understanding or appreciation of the gender dimension