Report on sustainable development goals for the Southern Africa subregion

Abstract

Southern Africa’s major economic activities are services (51 per cent of the subregion’s gross domestic product GDP), followed by industry (32 per cent). Agriculture comes in third place at 17 per cent. The subregion has also posted positive economic growth since 2000, the highest being over 6 per cent in 2006 and 2007. The key issues affecting the subregion on the economic front are high poverty; income inequality; limited value addition (minerals and agriculture); high unemployment; and limited diversification. On the social front, the key issues include a high incidence of disease, in many areas related to or worsened by HIV and AIDs; poor health service delivery, low levels of enrolment in education beyond primary school; increasing gender-based violence, and a persistent gender gap in wealth distribution and decision-making at various levels. The sustainable development goals put forward in the report are premised among other things, on a unified concept of an overall goal of human development, designed to improve human well-being. Some of the major strengths of the Millennium Development Goals that led to their global acceptance, such as their brevity and simplicity, sometimes referred to as their parsimony, and measured outcomes, have been retained.