A new agenda for southern African health diplomacy?

Photo © Doune Porter / GAVI

The southern African chapter of an innovative new initiative, the Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration project, has now been running for more than a year at SAIIA.

In that time, the project has conducted fieldwork in Swaziland, in Zambia and at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat to discover how regional organisations can contribute to access to healthcare and medicines.

The project has just been published in a special issue of Global Social Policy. Key recommendations in this new paper highlight the need for SADC to:

  • reform their trade agenda
  • consider the role of civil society in promoting equal access to health services
  • establish health diplomacy training for Southern Africa to create more of an impact in South-South development agendas.

Click here to access the new paper in PDF.

Through this regional health project, SAIIA hopes to create policy change through quality research, for the benefit of vulnerable populations in Southern Africa.

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Learn more about the Poverty Reduction and Regional Integration project