Despite economic advances in many parts of the region, food insecurity and livelihood vulnerability are prominent features of poverty that continue to afflict much of the population in the SADC region. National governments, and the SADC Secretariat , are committed to tackling these problems and recognise the need to develop the necessary strategies on the basis of accurate data and analysis for short-term and longer term chronic conditions.

Member States, the SADC Secretariat, and its International Co-operating Partners (ICPs) have been working for some years to address food insecurity in its broader context of poverty and livelihood vulnerability. Such initiatives include the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the May 2004 Dar es Salaam SADC Head of States Summit Declaration on Enhancing Agriculture and Food Security for Poverty Reduction, to reverse the trends of increased vulnerability in the region.

SADC's RISDP recognizes that in order to address the underlying causes of chronic vulnerability in the region, and to make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, there is a need to broaden and improve early warning information and vulnerability assessments at national and sub national levels.

To achieve these aims, in 1999, the SADC Secretariat established the Regional Vulnerability Assessment Committee (RVAC), a multi-agency committee that has spearheaded critical improvements in food security and vulnerability analysis at regional and country level. Current active members of the RVAC include the SADC Secretariat, (as chair) the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET), OXFAM, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNICEF.

At the Member State level, National Vulnerability Assessment Committees (NVACs), coordinate vulnerability assessments. NVACs are multi-sectional committees led by relevant government ministries with wide ranging membership which includes different government ministries and departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international organisations involved in the poverty and the socio-economic sector.

In 2006, SADC Secretariat with its partners began implementing the Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (RVAA) Programme. Since its' inception, there has been important institutional and conceptual achievements, building understanding and strategies that integrate short-term responses to food emergencies with broader, longer-term approaches to chronic poverty, food insecurity and livelihood vulnerability.

Building on the diverse experience and steady progress of the past decade, SADC intends to continue with its Regional VAA work towards the sustainability of VAA institutions and systems at both national and regional levels. A continued focus will be placed on building sustainable VAA information systems which are integrated with early warning, monitoring, assessment and analysis, in support of action that spans urgent short-term responses to food deficits and longer-term programmes to redress the chronic poverty that makes people vulnerable to such deficits and to related livelihood crises. The future RVAA strategy will continue to contribute directly to the overarching priority in SADC's integration agenda, which is to combat poverty.