World leaders meeting as the general assembly of the United Nations in September 2000 underscored, through the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the multi-dimensional challenge of poverty and agreed on a set of time-bound development targets.

At the continental level, the African Union embraced the MDGs in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an economic programme that is seen as positioning Africa as a key global player.

Taking cue from the global and continental initiatives, SADC has responded with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), which is a 15-year blueprint that is being implemented in three-yearly phases. Approved by SADC leaders at the Summit in August 2003 in Dar es Salaam, the challenge is for the blueprint to be embraced at the national level.

The institutional framework is such that the SADC Integrated Committee of Ministers provides policy direction and oversees overall implementation, while the Secretariat has the primary responsibility of coordinating operational matters. Given that the development challenges to be addressed are within the member states, the responsibility of operationalising the RISDP cannot be removed from the national governments.

The Windhoek Declaration and Treaty of 1992 underpins the blueprint, in calling upon all “countries and people of southern Africa to develop a vision of a shared future, a future within a regional community.”

The RISDP document notes that SADC’s “shared vision is anchored on the common values and principles and the historical and cultural affinities that exist between the peoples of southern Africa.” Regional cooperation and integration in SADC date back to the mid 1970s, the days of the Frontline States, whose main objective was to coordinate eff o r t s , resources and strategies of national liberation movements as they fought colonialism and apartheid.

With apartheid South Africa increasingly destabilising majority-ruled countries, both politically and economically, a regional ministerial conference that met in Arusha in July 1979 agreed on a strategy for the formation of the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC).

SADCC was formally launched in April 1980 in Lusaka at a summit of the then nine majority-ruled states (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe). Operating as a loose functional cooperation organisation, whose principal aim was to reduce economic dependency on apartheid South Africa, SADCC drew up a programme of action that covered the key areas of Transport and Communications, Food and Agriculture, Industry, Manpower Development and Energy.

Through a decentralised structure meant to enhance ownership, the programme of action was implemented through member states coordinating sectors. These sectors grew with membership, and as new challenges arose.

Meanwhile, important developments were unfolding at the global and continental levels in the early 1990s. In particular, Namibia attained independence in 1990, signalling the demise of apartheid in South Africa, especially as symbolised by the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in the same year -- leading to the first multi-racial elections in 1994.

There was also a stronger global push towards regional integration groups as countries sought to benefit from economies of scale presented by larger markets. In 1991, the Organisation of African Unity signed the Abuja Treaty establishing the African Economic Community. Building on the vision of the Lagos Plan of Action of 1980, the Abuja Treaty made regional economic communities such as SADC and the Economic Community of the West African States, the building blocks of the continental community.

Thus the 1992 Summit in Windhoek, which signed the Treaty transforming SADCC, the “coordinating conference” into SADC, the “community”, was in many ways a response to regional challenges and international trends. Through the Treaty, SADC redefined the basis for cooperation, moving from a loose association to a more legally binding organisation.

Over the years, SADC’s membership increased to the present day 14 countries, with Namibia joining in 1990, South Africa in 1994, Mauritius in 1995 and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Seychelles both joining in 1997. By 2000, sectors had increased to 21, supported by more than 20 sector protocols, charters and declarations.

With these developments, a number of constraints arose ranging from a lack of institutional reform to match the transformation from SADCC to SADC, lack of synergy between objectives of the Windhoek Treaty on one hand and the existing programme of action and institutional framework on the other hand, to the lack of mechanisms for translating political commitments into concrete action.

In response, an Extra Ordinary Summit held in March 2001 in Windhoek approved the restructuring of SADC, which has since seen the clustering of the 21 sectors previously coordinated by member states into four directorates that are now centrally managed by the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone.

The same summit instructed Secretariat to formulate the RISDP to provide direction and framework for SADC policies and programmes, in the longterm. The final document was formally launched by President Benjamin Mkapa, the SADC Chairperson, in March 2004 in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, during the Council of Ministers.

In his foreword to the RISDP document, President Mkapa notes challenges that the region is facing, saying: “Poverty reduction in all its dimensions – including malnutrition, high levels of infant and child mortality, illiteracy, unclean water and poor sanitation – must receive the priority that it deserves. The HIV and AIDS pandemic, and other communicable diseases, undermine our development efforts… Peace, security and democracy must be upheld and promoted…” With SADC having embraced continental and global development agendas as outlined in NEPAD and MDGs frameworks, the onus is now with member states to embrace the RISDP and harmonise it with national development plans. ?