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Since its establishment, SADC-GMI has embarked on a number of programmes
aimed at fostering groundwater management, such as Conjunctive Water Resources Man-
agement Research in the Shire River Aquifer System. In 2018 SADC-GMI carried out
another initiative to strengthen policy, legal and institutional frameworks for groundwater
management in the region.

Tourism
The SADC region has been working on improving tourism infrastructure in
order to ensure that Member States are well-positioned to attract domestic
and international visitors. This has involved creating the necessary favourable environ-
ment for tourism, thus ensuring the sector becomes a vehicle for socioeconomic devel-
opment. The Tourism Sector Plan of the RIDMP indicates that the number of tourists
coming to the SADC region could triple by 2027, hence there is an urgent need to have
physical infrastructure to accommodate them and increase the market share.
The SADC region has 18 Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) to date, which
are located on land or maritime areas. Nine of these TFCAs involving 11 Member States
have formal agreements and governance structures in place. A Monitoring and Evaluation
Framework for the implementation of the SADC TFCAs programme has been approved.

4.2.3 Special Programmes of Regional Dimension
The overall goal of this pillar that covers human development and special programmes 117
including Health, Gender and Labour, is to enhance and use human capabilities and re-
duce vulnerability, eradicate poverty and attain the wellbeing of SADC citizens. The main
areas also include Education and Skills Development, Employment, Agriculture, and En-
vironment and Climate Change.

Health

SADC has worked towards attaining an acceptable standard of health for all
citizens through facilitating the development of regional tools, including a pro-
tocol, policies, strategies, plans and guidelines for harmonised healthcare systems in the
region; to coordinate the adoption, domestication and implementation of regional tools
for healthcare harmonisation; to provide technical support; and to monitor and report on
progress and challenges.
A Health Programme was first developed in 1997 and is now guided by three key
policy documents – the Protocol on Health; the Health Policy Framework; and the Regional
Indicative Strategic Development Plan. The SADC Protocol on Health was approved in 1999
and entered into force in 2004 as the guiding document for the development of regional health
policies and programmatic documents. The Protocol seeks to co-
ordinate regional efforts on epidemic preparedness, mapping pre-
vention, control and where possible, the eradication of
communicable and non-communicable diseases. A SADC Human
Resource for Health Strategic Plan 2020-2030 has been developed
to accelerate progress toward health objectives and longer term
health goals for Member States.

Reduced HIV and AIDS Infections and MTCT
Commendable progress has been achieved in the availability
and access to quality HIV and AIDS services and commodities,
and new HIV infections have been reduced by one-third, while
AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by half in 2020 com-
pared to 2010. SADC had embarked in 2012 on an HIV and Source UNAIDS Data 2020