Attachments
This report covers the period 1 January to 30 June 2011
In brief
Programme outcome: In line with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Strategy 2020, the expected outcome of the Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) is strengthened capacity of the ten National Societies in the region to deliver services aimed at enhancing community resilience to disasters and public health emergencies, with protected livelihoods and strengthened capacity to recover from disasters and crises, whilst promoting healthy and safe living, social inclusion and a culture of non-violence and peace.
Programmes summary: During this period, the SARO provided support for the disaster management, health and care, National Society development / capacity building and the principles and values programming activities for all the southern Africa National Societies. The disaster management programme continued to support the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the regional long-term food security programmes for the National Societies. Additional support was also provided in disaster preparedness, disaster response and recovery, disaster risk reduction, food security within the framework of the Zambezi River Basin Initiative (ZRBI) for Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. The regional team also provided support to National Societies which were responding to floods that hit a number of countries in the region. This included support within the framework of Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) for Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa, and subsequently, an emergency appeal was launched for Namibia.
Under the health and care programme, SARO continued to provide support for the health activities within the framework of community based health and first aid (CBHFA), emergency health, water and sanitation, as well as HIV and AIDS.
More collaborative and networking activities, leadership and management development, and branch development to ensure more effective service delivery to the vulnerable communities was prioritized Attention was also given to defining systems and procedures as well as management and capacity development for volunteers. Steps were also taken to strengthen the capacities of National Societies’ structures, particularly in the areas of finance management and programme management to improve area of youth development, and progress was made under the Youth as Agents of Behaviour Change (YABC) initiative.
The principles and values programming activities focused on the promotion and operationalization of the fundamental principles and humanitarian values, sensitisation and prevention of sexual and gender violence. Furthermore, programming also focused on the promotion of respect for diversity and nondiscrimination. This marked the commencement of the consultative process for the Ubuntu Initiative that is being designed to address the humanitarian needs of vulnerable migrants and work with migrants and host communities towards respect for diversity and social inclusion.