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influence health governance, focussing on marginalised populations. To advance this strategy in 2016, the OSISA chairperson approved a grant for qualitative research on health care status for sex workers in five countries within southern Africa. The purpose of the research was to identify gaps in access to health care for sex workers and make recommendations to inform the OSISA and PHP programming strategy on sex work in the region.
A participatory planning session was convened in April 2017 to fully engage partners in the research. Partners from human rights organisations working on sex worker issues, sex worker-led organisations and sex worker alliances across the region attended the meeting. They discussed the study terms of reference, methodology, the role of the different partners in the study, ethical clearance in the various countries, and research tools and time frame.
One of the key recommendations from this meeting was the need to incorporate cooperating quantitative study methods into the research to ensure it captures the attention of our target audience, which is primarily policymakers and government departments. The convening, therefore, agreed that adding a quantitative component to this work would make the study more powerful as it would resonate with the target audience and potentially generate a lot more advocacy results as opposed to a study that purely took a qualitative approach. The cluster explored additional funding for this piece of work with the Executive Office.
Through the economic justice programme, the cluster continued to support organisations and groups that pressure states to develop pro-poor economic development policies for broader access to basic services and economic opportunities. Significant advancements have been made around understanding the impacts of privatisation on socio-economic rights and mobilising civil society organisations (CSOs) to develop continental free trade agreements.
The DRC country office launched a call for a proposal for researching the impact of supermarket structures on women-owned small businesses in the restaurant field. The study would involve understanding the impact of the supermarket and obtain a proper analysis of the social
and economic situation of women involved in the business and the response from state agencies.
In December 2016, OSISA supported the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development (AFRODAD) with resources to undertake a study to analyse the trends and impact of privatisation on education and health services in selected countries in southern Africa. The study would identify gaps in the regulatory and policy instruments governing privatisation in the focus countries. In the last quarter, AFRODAD made strides in establishing contacts with organisations in the nine target countries to ensure effective data collection. AFRODAD undertook the initial desk review to identify regulatory frameworks that form the basis for privatisation, the forms of privatisation in health and education services and the impact of privatisation on citizens. In the next phase, AFRODAD would critically analyse the policy environment and gather primary data on privatisation in Malawi, Angola, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique and The DRC.
Together with the economic justice programme, the partnerships unit provided funding to Third World Network to hold a CSO consultative meeting on the Continental Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) in southern Africa. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) as a region was lagging far behind the rest of the continent in making input into the document with the African Union pushing for its adoption. The meeting was held in Lusaka, Zambia, in April. It highlighted concerns from those present, including civil society, government, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), faith- based organisations and social movements. It was found that the process did not appear to be participatory and inclusive. It essentially appeared to be a state-to-state process without private sector involvement; there were concerns around the orientation of the CFTA as it seemed that the bias was towards a liberalisation agenda and was not mindful of what was happening on the ground.
Stakeholders highlighted the need for CSOs to engage the SADC organs on the feasibility of attaining substantive issues contained within the document; the need to undertake research on the impact of CFTA on the regional economies and economically marginalised
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OPEN SOCIETY INITIATIVE FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA – 2017 REPORT