Panos Southern Africa launches strategic plan (2007-2011)
PANOS Southern Africa will be launching a strategic plan that will guide its activities from 2007-2011. The launch will be graced by first republican president of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda who is patron of Panos Southern Africa. The function, which will be held on Thursday 20th September starting at 1800hrs at Lusaka’s Pamodzi Hotel, will also be attended by various donors and stakeholders who support the activities of the organisation.
The genesis of the strategic plan dates back to May 2005 when Panos Southern Africa (PSAf) gained autonomy from Panos London. The autonomy transferred responsibilities that were previously discharged by Panos London to PSAf. Since then, PSAf has been taking steps towards building organizational capacity to carry out the responsibilities that were formerly under the domain of Panos London. This necessitated the process to embark on the development of a strategic plan that would guide the new tasks assumed by PSAf.
A host of development challenges continue to hinder meaningful socio-economic development in Southern Africa. Among them: poverty, poor health care, HIV/AIDS, lack of education, environmental degradation and climate change. These issues demand multi-pronged approaches which most governments in the region lack adequate capacity to undertake.
And in order to support mitigation of these issues, PSAf has been broadening its scope of activities and presence in the region aimed at realizing its vision – to cultivate an informed Southern African community that has sufficient capacity to drive their own development agenda in the next decade. This vision is driven by PSAf’s mission of cultivating an informed and inclusive environment for public policy debate in the region, working with the media and other communication actors to enable marginalized populations to play an active role in the decision making processes that drive development.
To make this vision a reality, PSAf is working in six thematic areas. The first theme is the Media Development and ICTs which focuses on promoting media development, diversity and plurality in media ownership, structures and communication processes as a way of expanding access to media and information by marginalized and poor communities in Southern Africa.
The second thematic area addresses Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM). The goal of this programme is to promote sustainable responses in ENRM in the SADC region. Through this theme, PSAf aims to create public awareness, build media capacity and stimulate debate on environment and natural resources management issues in Southern Africa. The key areas of focus include: waste management, pollution, deforestation, land degradation and sustainable agriculture and climate change
Theme three focuses on stimulating and increasing inclusive debate on the causes and effects of HIV/AIDS and access to communication channels by people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS in the region. HIV/AIDS remains one of the major health and development challenges globally and more particularly for the developing world. A 2006 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicated that 39.5 million people in the world were living with HIV and AIDS, with Sub-Saharan Africa carrying the largest share of 24.7 million in which the SADC region is the worst affected. Thus, PSAf aims to provide information on critical aspects of the pandemic to enable the affected communities in the SADC region make informed responses.
Health is the fourth thematic area which was previously linked to the HIV/AIDS programme. The decision to separate it was in view of the observed marginalization of other critical health issues by HIV/AIDS. Through this programme, PSAf seeks to promote access to health information by the poor and marginalized communities to enable them make informed responses.
The faith programme area is on Globalisation, Public Policy and Governance. This theme focuses on strengthening the capacities of SADC member states and media to respond to globalization in international, regional and domestic policy arenas through the provision of well researched, balanced and analytical information. This theme has broadened its scope to include human rights, gender, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), National Development Plans (NDP) and transparency and accountability of governors to the governed.
Vulnerable Groups is the sixth thematic area. This is a new programme that has emerged from the need to focus on vulnerable groups in the region, particularly children and the physically and mentally challenged. The major focus for PSAf in this area is to improve the policy environment to ensure there is a strong framework for promotion and protection of the rights of these groups.
The five-year strategic plan will direct the activities of PSAf in all the six thematic areas up to the year 2011. A full detailed version of the summarized edition to be launched , can be obtained from PSAf on request.
