by Joseph Ngwawi in Gaborone, Botswana – SANF 15 no 40
The Southern African Development Community has launched a publication that documents some of the major successes achieved by the region over the past 35 years.
The SADC Success Stories publication, first of its kind in southern Africa, was launched by the SADC Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax on the sidelines of the ongoing 35th Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government in Gaborone, Botswana.
The publication presents some of the notable achievements of regional integration in various sectors such as trade, transport, finance, tourism, energy, disaster management, water resources, peacekeeping training and political cooperation.
This year marks 35 years since the establishment of SADC by the nine founding Member States in 1980. The number of countries has expanded over the years to 15, comprising 12 in mainland southern Africa and the three island states of Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles.
At its formation as the Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 1980, the leaders of the region sought to demonstrate their vision of unity through the tangible benefits of working together.
“From this solid foundation, significant progress has been made to strengthen cooperation in various thematic areas, including the development of legal instruments and institutional arrangements to support the regional integration programme,” Dr Tax said.
She added, “In fact, pursuant to our regional integration agenda, SADC Member States have since 1992 signed 27 protocols and a number of declarations, charters and memoranda of understanding on various key areas, ranging from trade and investment, peace and security, to transboundary natural resources, as well as the empowerment of women and young people.”
Out of the 27 protocols, 24 have come into force so far after being ratified by two thirds of the signatory Member States and are at various stages of implementation.
“Although there is still a long way to go for the region to attain deeper regional integration, we believe that the implementation of these and other initiatives have improved the lives of SADC citizens,” she said.
It is against this background that the SADC Secretariat and its partners decided to document some of the successes of the regional integration programme.
“The launch of the Success Stories publication is testimony that SADC matters. It shows that SADC matters to the people,” said Germany Ambassador to Botswana, Rolf Ulrich, whose government supported the production of the publication.
He said the German government has supported SADC regional integration for the past 20 years and was ready to continue working with the region in ensuring that its integration agenda is successful.
The SADC Success Stories publication is intended to increase the public visibility of SADC, and to showcase some of the achievements and benefits of regional integration informed by the reality that SADC is not sufficiently well understood in terms of its mandate, programmes, activities and impact.
The publication was produced for SADC by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), a longstanding research and knowledge partner of the Secretariat. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). sardc.net
