Gender inequality is viewed worldwide as a human rights issue and a hindrance to social, political and economic development. In the Southern African region, various gender based disadvantages confront women including disease prevalence, negative cultural practices, male domination and unequal participation of men and women in decision-making. While there has been some progress, high levels of gender-based violence, political, social and economic imbalances point to persistent gender inequalities in many SADC  countries

The project in brief

Objectives	Staff and management of the Swiss Corporation Office and partner organisations. Key persons at ministries and SADC Secretariat.
Target groups	Staff and management of the Swiss Corporation Office and partner organisations. Key persons at ministries and SADC Secretariat.
Medium-term outcomes	The overall goal of the Support to HIV/AIDS and Gender Mainstreaming project is to ensure gender equity and HIV concerns are embedded within the domains of SDC’s Regional Programme Southern Africa (RPSA) in order to contribute to the achievement of equity between men and women in all aspects of social, political and economic development.   Specifically, the projects aims to ensure   Improved quality of the regional programme in Southern Africa by reducing gender inequalities Increase in gender sensitive policies and strategies at national and regional levels.
Results	Expected results:   It is intended that by the end of this phase, the following would have been achieved; 70 percent of projects have integrated gender equality and HIV perspectives Institutional frameworks/strategies on gender/HIV exist 70 percent of partner reports show gender results including sex disaggregated data Evidence from three action research leads to gendered and HIV sensitive RPSA, projects and policies Two documented case studies at project level shared Technical support and trainings provided to SCO and partners Results from previous phases:   In the previous phase, a baseline study was conducted to access current policies on gender mainstreaming. The study revealed that gender inequality is not systematically mainstreamed in the RPSA and the majority of the partners’ projects. It showed that there were no gender HIV strategies to guide mainstreaming gender in organisations. The majority of projects lacked gender baselines as well as indicators. In addition to the baseline study, two capacity-building workshops were held for SCO staff. A workshop in partnership with the World Bank, attended by ministers of Gender/Women of the SADC region was also held.
Directorate/federal office responsible	SDC
Credit area	Development cooperation
Project partners	Contract partner International or foreign NGO Other partners SCO and partner organisations
Budget	Current phase Swiss budget CHF    780’000 Swiss disbursement to date CHF    228’521
Project phases	Phase 1 01.10.2009 - 31.12.2015   (Completed)

Further technical details

• Sector according to the OECD Developement Assistance Commitiee categorisation	POPULATION POLICIES/PROGRAMMES & REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH GOVERNMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY OTHER MULTISECTOR
  Sub-Sector according to the OECD Developement Assistance Commitiee categorisation	Reproductive health care Human rights Rural development
  Cross-cutting topics	Specific project on gender equality. The project takes account of democratisation, good governance and human rights as cross-cutting themes. The project also supports partner organisation improvements
  Type of support	Official development assistance (ODA)
  Type of collaboration	Bilateral cooperation
  Finance type	Aid grant
  Aid Type	Mandate without fiduciary fund Project and programme contribution
  Tied/untied aid	Untied aid
  Project number	7F06358