IPC in Southern Africa

In Southern Africa, IPC was introduced in February 2008, during an awareness raising workshop held in Gaborone. The event was hosted by the the multi-agency SADC-RVAC structure (Regional Vulnerability Assessment Committee) that leads critical improvements in food security and vulnerability analysis at regional and country level in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). 

In 2009, a Technical Working Group was established within the RVAC of the SADC, taking on the coordination role of IPC activities in the region. Awareness was raised among all the VACs in the region, and four countries requested support to introduce the IPC: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

The main objectives of the SADC IPC TWG are to:

• ensure a demand-driven and regionally owned process;
• prepare and implement a regional roll-out strategy;
• develop technical capacity at country and regional levels;
• coordinate and facilitate country and regional level events;
• provide technical and institutional support;
• consolidate, disseminate and internalize lessons learned.

In 2009, the SADC IPC TWG developed the ‘Regional IPC Roll-Out Strategy for Southern Africa . The strategy for rolling out IPC in Southern Africa focuses on a set of interlinked and phased activities ranging from awareness raising to advanced training of national and regional staff, field trials of IPC culminating in the IPC analysis workshops. By the end of this first phase in 2010, IPC analysis had been completed in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

In 2012, the RVAC consulted again all VACs and activities resumed in the region with the introduction of IPC Version 2.0 and the piloting of the IPC Chronic Analysis in three countries in the SADC region, namely in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho.

Currently, participating countries in Southern Africa are in two stages of IPC implementation:

• Stage 1: Awareness-raising and consultations: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia;
• Stage 2: Initial in-country training and analysis: Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho.