Reinvigorating and Sustaining a Vibrant Women s Movement in the Southern African Development Community Region

The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), in collaboration with its development partners and the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Trust (WLSA-Swaziland), convened a regional roundtable meeting on reinvigorating and sustaining the women’s movement in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The meeting sought to explore the dwindling vibrancy of the women’s movement in the SADC region—a diminished resource base, limited capacity and ability to effectively mobilize and organize around new challenges such as HIV and AIDS—and provide a road map towards its reinvigoration, guided by recommendations from findings of research commissioned by OSISA in 2005. Participants were encouraged to engage with situational analysis examining the causes of the deteriorating vibrancy, proposing strategies and modalities to address this, and collectively drawing up an action plan with defined roles, responsibilities, and a timeframe for its implementation.

The roundtable invited around 100 stakeholders from national, subregional and regional levels, individual activists, NGO coalitions, CBOs, government gender machineries, funding organizations, UN agencies, and academics among others in the SADC region and beyond.

The meeting took place at the Ezwulini Sun Hotel, Mbabane, in the Kingdom of Swaziland. For additional details, visit the following websites: www.osisa.org or www.wlsa.org.zm. In addition to the contacts listed above, more information is available from Lomcebo Dlamini at +268-4041732 or wlsaszd@africaonline.sz.