Occupational health and safety in the Southern African Development Community

Occupational health and safety (OHS) practice in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been greatly constrained by inadequate integration with the political, economic and social environment of many SADC member states. SADC is a regional economic community comprising 15 member states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe [1]. Even in the presence of global OHS instruments by the International Labour Organization (ILO) that guide all countries in the promotion of workplace health and safety and in managing OHS programmes, including No. 81 (Labour inspection), No. 155 (Occupational safety and health), No. 161 (Occupational health services), No. 170 (Chemical safety) and No. 174 (Prevention of major industrial accidents), many SADC member states lack a comprehensive OHS policy and the resources to implement it [2,3].

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