Maseru, Oct. 07 — The Southern African Development Community (SADC) in collaboration with its Cooperating Partners namely African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and Sweden, and United Nations (UN) specialised agencies namely UNAIDS, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and World Health Organisation (WHO) under 2gether4SRHR, convened a Multisectoral Consultative Forum on the SADC Framework for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and Demographic Dividend.
The Multisectoral Consultative Forum was held in Lusaka, Republic of Zambia under the theme: Investing in Social and Human Development for Economic Growth, Wellbeing, Peace andSecurity in SADC.
The Forumbrought together experts on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), HIV, Population and Economic Planning, employment and entrepreneurship, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) from SADC Member States to deliberate on the available body of knowledge, lessons and experiences and develop a common strategic framework for programming on SRHR -Youth for the demographic dividend in SADC.
The Director of Social and Human Development at the SADC Secretariat, Mrs. Duduzile Simelane underscored the need for investing in young people to allow countries to leverage a demographic dividend, turning the young population into an engine for economic growth and prosperity for the SADC region.
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