.' A DECLARATION ON GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PREAMBLE WE, the Heads of State or Government of the Southam African Development Community, A. NOTING THAT: i) Member States undertook in the SADC Treaty {Article 6(2)} not to discriminate against any person on the grounds of gender, among others; ii) All SADC member states have signed and ratified or acceded to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), or are in the finalstages of doing so; B. CONVINCED THAT: i) Gender equality is a fundamental human right; ii) Gender is an area in which considerable agreement already exists and where there are substantial benefits to be gained from closer regional co-operation and collective action. iii) The integration and mainstreaming of gender issues into the SADC Programme of Action and Community Building Initiative is key to the sustainable development of the SADC region. C. DEEPLY CONCERNED THAT: i) While some SADC member states have made some progress towards gender equality and gender mainstreaming, disparities between women and men still exist in the areas of legal rights, power sharing and decision making, access to and controlover productive resources, education and health among others; ii) Women constitute the majority of the poor; iii) Efforts to integrate gender considerations in SADC sectoral programmes a d projects have not sufficiently mainstreamed gender in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. 2