The UN Women South Africa Multi Country Office (SAMCO) is based in Pretoria and covers five countries – Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Eswatini. All five countries are members of the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The priority areas for SAMCO are:
-
Women’s Peace and Security
-
Global norms, and standards on GEWE (HIV/AIDS, CSW, Social Protection recovery and reconstruction, Generation Equality)
As chair of the United Nations Gender Theme Group in South Africa, the MCO works across the wider UN system to develop joint programming and promote adherence to global normative and policy frameworks for gender equality and the empowerment of women.
In the other SACU countries, SAMCO focuses on coordination and advocacy efforts as well as collaborating with sister UN agencies to support wider UN programmes to ensure the integration of gender in UN Programming frameworks. SAMCO also works on focused interventions in the SACU countries in collaboration with local partners.