A whole new era dawns for SADC as heads of state and govemment convene an Extra-Ordinary Summit in Windhoek, Namibia, on 9 March to consider a ministerial report that seeks to transform the management structure of the l4-member organization.

The SADC leaders are expected to approve a proposal adopted by the SADC Council of Ministers at Midrand, South Africa, from 18-24 February. The ministers adopted recommendations that had earlier been spelled out in a report by an Extra-ordinary Session of Council which met in November last year. SADC procedure is such that policy decisions are recommended by a full council for approval by the summit.

Traditionally the Council of Ministers meets twice a year, while the summit meets once, usually in August or September. But urgent matters can be dealt with at extra-ordinary meetings such as the one in Windhoek where restructuring will be the main agenda item.

If approved, the proposal will collapse the organization's 21 sectors currently coordinated by member states, into five core clusters: .trade, industry , fmance and investment; .infrastructure and services; .food, agriculture and natural resources; .social and human development; and .special projects on issues such as small arms and light weapons, disaster management and drug trafficking.

The clusters would be brought into an enlarged SADC Secretariat based in Gaborone, Botswana, where they would be managed by appointed directors.

"We want the executive secretary's eyes to be focused on the operations of the sectors," said Hidipo Hamutenya, minister of trade and industry in Namibia who chairs the SADC Council of Ministers. (Namibia is the current chair of SADC, which rotates annually).

"So far it has not been possible with sectors scattered allover the region," he said. Under the new proposal, the executive secretary, who is yet to be appointed following the dismissal of Kaire Mbuende in August 1999, would be fully responsible for the success or failure of SADC institutions. The restructuring committee, which has been working on the exercise for the past year-and-a-half, cited a number of inadequacies in the current system. It said sector coordinators, who in most countries are seconded from national govemments, are more loyal to their ministers rather than the executive secretary. This management structure has often not been responsive to the objectives, policies, priorities and deadlines set out by SADC.

Thus the new structure seeks to give the executive secretary more muscle to have a firm grip on the operations of the organization which has been in existence since 1980. Five candidates, from Angola, Lesotho, Mauritius, Tanzania and Swaziland, are said to be vying for the job. Prega Ramsamy of Mauritius has been in an acting capacity since Mbuende's departure.

So far only one of them has publicly declared her candidature -Albina Assis Africano, a former Angolan minister of industry and who has also held the powerful petroleum portfolio. She is a Under the proposed centralized structure, the SADC headquarters would have to expand both physically and interinsofpersonnel needs as more staff would be stationed at the Gaborone-based SADC House.

While it might be easier for the government of Botswana to fund the expansion of SADC House (Botswana as host of Secretariat is fully responsible for the physical improvements to the building), the same cannot be said about the cost of the whole restructuring exercise, which runs into millions of dollars and would have to be met by all member states.

SADC institutions have perennially suffered from under-funding, largely blamed on defaulting member states. Although the recent council in Midrand said it would tighten sanctions against defaulting members (without mentioning how), it has in the past taken too soft stance on such members, something that has not helped the [mancial situation to stabilize.

Defaulting members are only barred from voting at the ministerial or summit level, but technical and senior officials can participate fully in the preparation of policy documents, regardless of whether they are paid up or not. The organization has also been criticised for refusing to name defaulting members in public.

There have also been cases where some member states deposit their cheques only a few days before council meetings, to enable them to vote on policy decisions, leaving SADC operations to suffer liquidity problems the whole year.

With such a shaky [mancial position, it is difficult to imagine how the organization is going to fund this ambitious restructuring exercise. But on the whole, the success of this transformation process will depend on the credentials and abilities of the person who will be in overall charge of affairs at SADC House, the new Executive Secretary .(SARDC)