Skip to content
About the alliance

About the alliance

  • About the alliance
  • Alliance launch UNDP slide 700x0 crop 80
  • Alliance Mada slide 2 700x0 crop 80
  • Alliance Mada slide 4 700x0 crop 80
Alliance Mada slide 5 700x0 crop 80

The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance is a regional “network of networks” that championed the adoption of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development (2008). Since then, the alliance has produced an annual barometer to track progress in achieving gender equality in the SADC region against the targets of the protocol.

In 2009, the alliance launched the Action and Results campaign to implement the protocol, and in 2014, it mounted a campaign to update the protocol in line with the UN’s post-2015 agenda. In 2015, SADC gender ministers agreed to adopt a regional framework with SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) targets.

Why this work matters

Wave marron 2x

Gender inequality remains a pervasive challenge in Southern Africa, limiting opportunities for women and marginalised groups. The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance plays a transformative role in advancing gender equality across the SADC region by:

  • Using its unified advocacy framework to amplify voices at grassroots level
  • Bridging the gap between policy and practice to align national gender policies with the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, ensuring that governments are held accountable and that gender equality is not just aspirational but actionable
  • Fostering collaboration among governments, NGOs and communities
  • Pushing forward in the face of the backlash against women’s rights
  • Monitoring and evaluation through the Southern Africa Gender and Development Index to measure country performance and benchmark progress, as well as through the annual barometer that tracks progress towards gender equality, providing empirical data and case studies that highlight successes and gaps
  • Working with governments to cost the implementation of gender policies, making them financially viable and sustainable
  • Convening learning and sharing summits to showcase the Protocol@Work. These summits document real-life examples of how the protocol is being implemented, inspiring replication and innovation

Key achievements of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance

  • Demanding accountability: mobilising for the signing and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, the only sub-regional instrument of its kind that brings together all existing commitments to gender equality in one instrument, with 28 time-bound targets
  • Coalition building and strengthening civil society: galvanising the women’s movement through national focal networks, theme clusters and interest groups; representing the gender sector in the SADC congress of NGOs and mainstreaming gender in the work of this regional lobby network
  • Advocacy and awareness raising through the distribution of multimedia IEC (information, education, and communication) materials in 23 local languages, village workshops, radio spots, a DVD and interactive engagements in all SADC countries. The impact is measured through a knowledge quiz available on the website
  • Implementation: the alliance has conducted pioneering research on aligning national gender policies and action plans with the targets of the SADC Gender Protocol and costing implementation at a national level. The alliance is working with the SADC Gender Unit on a roadmap for implementing the protocol agreed upon by gender ministers in 2011
  • Monitoring and evaluation through the monthly Roadmap to Equality newsletter; the annual Southern Africa Gender Protocol Barometer that tracks implementation of 28 targets; and several case studies of the Protocol@work.