A simple glance at what is happening in Zimbabwe highlights how the absence of good governance impoverishes and threatens human security both within a country?s borders and across the region.

Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of the region and if good governance had prevailed, we would perhaps not have been confronted with the current food crisis. It is true that the whole world is having to grapple with climate change and its implications on food supplies but bad governance only compounds the problem. Robert Zoellick from the World Bank has drawn our attention to how the current food crisis will multiply the numbers of poor in our already poverty stricken but very rich continent. This is the paradox of Africa. Needless to say that the 1$ a day measure of poverty and the Millenium Development Goals or the Major Distraction Gimmicks (as those who oppose governance by the market and neoliberalism call them) make no sense when we look at the complexity of poverty in the region.

<I>To stop being silent and /or pretend that there is no crisis in situations where there is an absence of good governance and thousands of lives are at risk.
The relevance of good governance for pro poor outcomes goes without saying.</I>

Can we really speak of regional integration when countries in the region do not speak with a unified voice. One may think that it is naïve to think that countries will forget about their immediate self interests and work for the betterment of the human condition in the entire SADC community but it would also be naïve to think that regional integration would be possible and effective if the vast majority of the citizens in the region continue to live in abysmal conditions. Getting out of the poverty trap demands a change in the mindset as well as the political will to understand that regional integration cannot be focused on trade issues only. Whilst the expansion of trade will certainly contribute to an accumulation of wealth for some, it will not necessarily address the problems of the poor. There is an urgent need to factor in the human security /livelihoods question in the trade matrix and go beyond. As Easterley rightly says: ?poverty is a complicated tangle of political, social, historical, institutional, cultural and technological factors? and we need so much more than trade to eradicate poverty.

As a SADC national, and activist/ scholar, I therefore call upon SADC leaders and all other relevant stakeholders to take a firm commitment towards the adoption of the following recommendations

● To stop being silent and/or pretend that there is no crisis in situations where there is an absence of good governance and thousands of lives are at risk. The relevance of good governance for pro poor outcomes goes without saying.

● To ensure that SADC and its various facets- political, economic, social, cultural be incorporated within the national school curriculum as well as at institutions of higher learning so that the ?soft infrastructure ? required to make regional integration a success becomes more palpable. Unless the citizens of the region know and understand each other, poverty eradication and development will remain a very difficult exercise.

● To ensure that there is a paradigm shift within SADC which moves from the traditional state security architecture to incorporate human security.

● To get rid of the propoor rhetoric and adopt macro economic and trade polices which are indeed helping to create and sustain livelihoods rather than destroy livelihoods. The more jobless growth we have, the more incapacitated will the citizens of SADC be.

● To speak with one /unified voice on the question of EPAS. It is felt that there is not enough transparency on the question . With the looming food crisis, it becomes even more important to develop a solid unified position.

● To remove all gender biases in economic policy making and ensure that the SADC gender protocol be adopted urgently if the growing feminisation of poverty is to be reversed. Many people fail to see how some dimensions of the protocol are related to poverty but anyone who is a firm believer of equitable development will easily understand how some persistent discriminatory mechanisms and/or cultural practices can exacerbate poverty and retard development.

● Corporate Social responsibility should be redefined so that there is a more sustained and coherent approach towards poverty eradication and development.

● Work towards making the regional playing field more leveled for FDIS and at the same time ensure that all forms of corruption associated with FDIS be eliminated.

We, in SADC are confronted with a number of new challenges- the emerging giants of the world ? India and China have changed the face of globalisation. It is a new kind of globalisation that we are confronted with. We should however be cautious that under the new discourse of a South South cooperation, we do not allow the new giants to engage with us on exploitative terms which again privilege only a few at the expense of the masses. The above recommendations are certainly not sufficient to eradicate poverty but they are necessary if we want to make democratic developmental states meaningful in the region. It is therefore part of our collective responsibility to see to it that some of these measures are urgently adopted and implemented. It takes a smidgen of humanity to understand and realize that the poor too have dignity.

A more judicious use of resources and an emphasis on ethical development will go a long way in enabling us to address our constraints and capture on the multiple opportunities that are offered to us on the continent and beyond.

<B> By Sheila BUNWAREE</B>