By Nevison Mpofu
Representatives from Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states have gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe, for a joint regional meeting aimed at strengthening the implementation, monitoring and reporting of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) programmes across the region.
The meeting, running from August 31 to September 4, brings together SRHR programme managers, Monitoring and Evaluation specialists, Health Information Systems experts and gender officials from 15 SADC countries, with Comoros the only member state not represented.
Held under the theme, “Accelerating Implementation, Monitoring and Reporting of the SADC SRHR Strategy 2019–2030,” the meeting is assessing progress made under the regional strategy while identifying gaps that continue to affect women, girls, adolescents, young people, men and vulnerable communities.
Participants are also examining how countries can turn regional commitments into measurable improvements in people’s lives at a time when health systems across Southern Africa are confronting mounting financial, environmental and humanitarian pressures.
“We want to make sure that commitments we made as a region change lives of women, girls, adolescents, young people, men and communities, especially those left behind,” participants heard. “Strategies do not save lives. Implementation does. Reports do not create accountability unless someone is prepared to act on what the evidence is telling us. This is why this meeting matters.”
Ms Thembi Zulu, Deputy Director in the Women’s Health Department at South Africa’s Ministry of Health, said SADC countries are operating in a fundamentally different global environment from the one in which many existing health programmes were designed.
She said this changing environment makes it necessary for countries to identify weaknesses in their systems and rethink how sexual and reproductive health programmes are financed, implemented and monitored.
“SADC is experiencing colliding crises. Climate change is intensifying health risks. Conflicts and humanitarian emergencies are disrupting health services and displacing populations. Economic pressure, debt and fiscal constraints are shrinking the space available for public investment,” Zulu said.
She also pointed to an increasingly fragmented geopolitical environment and a less predictable international financing architecture as additional challenges confronting health systems in the region.
Against this backdrop, participants stressed the importance of protecting core health funding and strengthening domestic public financing as the foundation for resilient and equitable health systems.
SRHR services, including reproductive autonomy, maternal and adolescent health, HIV prevention and treatment, contraception, safe and respectful maternity care and protection from gender-based violence, remain particularly vulnerable to financial pressures.
With international funding becoming increasingly uncertain, the meeting is examining how SADC countries can integrate SRHR more firmly into national health systems and development priorities rather than treating it as a collection of separate programmes dependent on external financing.
A key focus is making implementation the centre of accountability and transforming monitoring and evaluation from a reporting exercise into a source of strategic intelligence that can guide policy and investment.
Participants are also calling for a sharper focus on equity to ensure vulnerable and underserved populations are not left behind. Other priorities include protecting SRHR programmes from fragmentation and redefining regional cooperation in response to declining and increasingly unpredictable financing.
Zulu said the region must also prepare for emerging challenges rather than focusing only on problems already captured by existing monitoring systems.
“We need to prepare for the SRHR challenges that are coming, not only measure those we already know,” she said.
Climate change, she noted, is already affecting maternal health, pregnancy, access to healthcare and reproductive outcomes, while migration and increased mobility could disrupt continuity of care across national borders.
Urbanisation and demographic shifts are also expected to reshape demand for services, while digital technologies are changing how people access health information and services. Economic and geopolitical shocks could place additional pressure on already stretched health systems.
The Harare meeting is expected to strengthen coordination between programme managers, monitoring specialists and health information experts so that SADC countries can better measure progress, identify shortcomings and translate evidence into action.
As implementation of the SADC SRHR Strategy moves closer to its 2030 deadline, the discussions in Harare underline a central challenge for the region: ensuring that ambitious commitments are matched by financing, stronger health systems and measurable improvements in the lives of Southern Africans.
