SADC Gender Protocol 2017 Barometer - Morna Colleen Lowe

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development is the only sub-regional instrument in the world that brings together global and continental commitments to gender equality in one instrument used to enhance accountability. The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance is a network of country and regional NGOs that campaigned for the Protocol, its updating, implementation and tracking. Originally aligned to the Millennium Development Goals that expired in 2015, SADC Gender Ministers updated the Protocol and aligned it to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Beijing Plus Twenty and the Africa Agenda 2063 in 2016. In July 2017, the Ministers adopted a Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Framework (MERF) that will be the basis of future reporting.

Now in its ninth edition, the 2017 Barometer is the first assessment of the Post-2015 SADC Gender Protocol. Moving with the times, the Alliance has expanded the two main key yardsticks in the Barometer: the SADC Gender and Development Index (SGDI) and the Citizen Score Card (CSC). The Barometer incorporates many MERF and SDG indicators, as well as its own unique measures of voice, choice and control.