It took Africa more than a century to completely eradicate colonialism and attain political independence. Having won this protracted struggle, African leaders decided in July 2001 to re-deploy their efforts towards what is set to be an even longer and more painful battle -- economic emancipation.

While the colonial chapter appears part of the history of the continent, at least in terms of having attained political independence, new challenges have emerged in the form of struggles over control of resources, persistent civil wars and with that, worsening poverty.

To meet these challenges, Africa now requires a more pragmatic approach beyond mere expression of solidarity, a strategy that might have worked well when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) successfully campaigned against colonialism.

Thus a review of major highlights of 2001 would not be convincing without mentioning the birth of a new continent-wide development initiative that was adopted last July in Lusaka, Zambia, by the African Union, which succeeded the OAU at the same summit.

Officially called the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the initiative is explicit about the need to reduce Africa's poverty and making it a key global player. It gives a clear mandate to regional groupings such as SADC that they should first strengthen themselves in terms of integration, before serving as building blocks of a much more economically robust Africa.

How SADC, like other regions, has responded to this call for a more active role in the new initiative, and to many other challenges facing southern Africa, inevitably shaped the region's socio-economic and political landscape during the past 12 months.

Despite notable regional efforts, peace in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) remained elusive. The reasons are many and highly debatable.

For Angola, the search for peace has clearly suffered from an international fatigue arising from ceaseless, though sometimes half-hearted, efforts to end a war that has dragged on for more than two-and-half decades.

Hopes for a peaceful end to the impasse between Jonas Savimbi's Unita and the government of President Jose Edwardo dos Santos stills look remote, if not fast fading.

A recent meeting of SADC defence ministers in Angola attempted to resuscitate international pressure on Unita by proposing to declare the rebel movement a "terrorist" organisation.

If adopted by the SADC summit and hopefully by the UN, the initiative would cut all material and political support to Unita, bringing it to its knees. Several investigations including those by the UN have revealed that Unita gets its support from a complex network of individuals, companies and even governments, a relationship that hinges on illegal diamond trading.

There is little to cheer about in neighbouring DRC as the UN shows little enthusiasm in deploying a credible peacekeeping force, an assurance SADC allied forces and rebel backers have categorically said they need before they can completely withdraw.

And the momentum created when former Botswana president, Sir Ketumile Masire, successfully brought together Congolese political rivals to dialogue in Gaborone was lost at the second attempt when a political conference in Addis Ababa was aborted a few days after it began. The conference was meant to chart the country's political future and mark the path for national reconciliation and multi-party elections.

However, all hope is not lost as the meeting, expected to bring together about 300 Congolese leaders of political and civil society groups for more than a month, has been rescheduled to January 2002 in Sun City, South Africa's entertainment hub.

Of all SADC countries, Zambia has born the heaviest burden of the military conflicts in Angola and DRC. It has faced a constant influx of refugees. Without international assistance, the southern African country cannot feed these people at a time when its domestic food requirements are barely met.

The SADC region recorded an overall cereal deficit in the current season owing mainly to floods and dry spell during the past season. Zambia currently imports cheaper maize from South Africa and Zimbabwe.

In a final bid to economically empower thousands of landless blacks, Zimbabwe stepped up its land redistribution programme for which its neighbours have expressed full support.

However, Zimbabwe's determination to continue its land redistribution exercise, with or without donor support, has widened the rift between the southern African country and Britain.

In September, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo brokered a deal in Abuja, which was seen as landmark in narrowing the differences between Britain and Zimbabwe.

On one hand, Zimbabwe agreed to stop further farm occupations and deal more decisively with law-breakers. On the other hand, Britain pledged financial commitment to enable the government of Zimbabwe to compensate commercial farmers and carry out a more orderly land reform.

However, current events on the ground have minimised relevance of the Abuja agreement -- both donors and the government have not been flexible enough in their policy stance, and the attention appears to be shifting towards the 2002 presidential elections.

On its part, SADC has come up with a regional initiative, which recognises the fact that orderly agrarian and land reform is necessary and urgent for most countries in the region.

A ministerial committee has already recommended that land and agrarian reform be incorporated as a core part of the newly created Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) directorate at the SADC Secretariat in Botswana.

FANR is one of four directorates created as a result of a SADC restructuring exercise, which was formalised early this year. The institutional reform has done away with sectors, which were previously coordinated by member countries, clustering them into the four directorates now based in Botswana.

SADC sees this restructuring exercise as a way of deepening its regional integration agenda, necessary for it to increase economic space and help eradicate poverty, currently estimated at 40 percent of the combined population of about 200 million.

The restructuring, also seen as better placing SADC to be a continental, and more importantly, global player, has been warmly received by the organisation's financiers. The European Union recently announced a grant of 101 million euros for regional projects.

At the annual summit in Blantyre, Malawi, SADC leaders broadened the policy framework for regional integration by signing five protocols and a declaration on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The declaration is an attempt to increase access to information vital for development.

The protocols signed are on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation; Firearms, Ammunition and other Related Materials; Fisheries; Culture, Information and Sport; and the Protocol against Corruption.

And the fight against HIV/AIDS, which has severely strained healthy facilities in the region, made a major breakthrough in two ways. First, a number of pharmaceutical companies that had taken South Africa to court, dropped their case allowing the country and others in a similar situation to source for cheaper generic drugs.

In addition, the November ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled that where drug companies are overpricing, governments can override patents in order to put public health ahead of commercial interests. This landmark WTO agreement on public health gives governments the right to grant compulsory licences, or determine the grounds upon which such licences are granted.

It is now left to SADC countries to use these powers to bring down the cost of medicines and increase access to life-saving treatments.

Regarding other global events during the year, the world agreed to implement the Kyoto protocol without the U.S., which refused to be part of this agreement that seeks to curb global warming and put environmental pollution under control. The protocol gives more responsibility to polluting countries.

But the highlight of global events during 2001 will remain the September 11 attack on US centres of financial and military might - the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon. The impact of this on world tourism, and the subsequent US war against Afghanistan, will remain a subject of debate even in the New Year.

And the Zambian election two days after Christmas brings down the curtain to yet another exciting year in SADC, and indeed an eventful one at the global level. (SARDC)

Top