Africa-Press – Lesotho. This year, Lesotho has been granted an opportunity to host the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Vulnerability Assessment Committee (RVAC) Technical Dissemination Meeting.
The meeting scheduled for one week commenced yesterday and will end on Friday this week. The main objective of the meeting is to prepare and endorse the Regional Assessment Report for SADC by the SADC Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (RVAA) Steering Committee.
The meetings are held annually after Member States compete their vulnerability assessment. RVAC members at the meeting included among others Angola, Democratic Republic of South Africa and Botswana.
In his opening remarks, Lesotho, SADC RVAA Programme Chair-country Mr. Haretsebe Mahosi indicated that there seems to be poverty affecting the country however he noted that most of the time problems are discussed without ever finding solutions to those problems.
“The meeting aims to strengthen the capacity of Member States to undertake and utilize vulnerability assessment to inform policy formulation development programmes and emergency interventions that lead to reduction in vulnerability in the region.
He further stated that Ministers are not the ones who should find solutions to the problems of vulnerability in different countries but expects should apply their knowledge.
He said the RVAA theory of change articulates what the programme aims to achieve and how it will achieve its set goals, adding that the results have to be seen by the end of the meeting.
“Every year a synthesis report that provides an overview of the food security and live hoods situation in the region is produced and disseminated to stakeholders so that by the end of the workshop, we will have a clear picture of the results and details at country level on food security, vulnerability, malnutrition and crop production,” he said.
Communication and Advocacy Officer of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Vulnerability Assessment Committee (RVAC) programme, Ms Rachel Nandelenga indicated that on 9 July 2018, SADC Secretariat will release an updated state on food and nutrition and vulnerability in Southern Africa in 2018.
”The report will provide the estimates of the number and proportion of food and nutrition, insecure and vulnerable people in the region and several indicators such as prevalence of malnutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, agricultural performance, the climate outlook, poverty, HIV, gender, markets analysis and climate change,” she indicated.
“Information enables Member States and development partners to respond effectively to food and nutrition insecurity and vulnerability and work towards achieving the objectives of SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development plan (RISDP) and the Sustainable Development Goals,” she noted.
In 2000, SADC established the Regional Vulnerability Assessment committee (RVAC) to guide and coordinate the development of the vulnerable assessment and analysis (VAA) system at country and regional levels.
