The Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SACI) is an innovative response to one of the most challenging development problems faced today that is the debilitating impact of HIV/AIDS on the public service at both the national and regional levels. Given the devastating effects of the pandemic on public sector capacity in the Southern African region, the SACI is a coherent and integrated response to arresting the decline in public service delivery on one hand and in containing and reversing the negative effects on governmental expenditures on the other.

Essentially, SACI is a set of catalytic actions designed to assist nations in Southern Africa to deal with the interlocking challenges of HIV/AIDS, capacity erosion, poverty and disasters through the governance lens. In other words, the initiative is a process of creating a more qualified, efficient and innovative approach that is responsive to the real needs of the public service which is empowered to adapt to national and global challenges, including the HIV/AIDS crisis. The SACI project was conceived to respond to a rapidly changing international, regional and national context characterised by HIV/AIDS, poverty, humanitarian emergencies and dwindling human resources. SACI will introduce innovative problem solving approaches to public sector reform such as 'double loop learning' and 'action research'.

SACI, as a regional learning exchange platform, will provide opportunities for the sharing of experiences, lessons learnt and best practices on reform processes across the region. It will also become a depository of methods, approaches and tools for improving public sector, private sector and NGO performance.
Source: United Nations Development Programme Lesotho