Page 13 - 40th Summit Brochure 2020

Stone by stone, step by step, our Community is taking shape and gaining prestige in the
international arena and among our own peoples.
To celebrate these historic activities, we will promote lectures and debates showcasing
our achievements as well as the sense of community we are building. We will also set aside
moments of reflection on the challenges our region is facing today and in the future.
Each member of the Community has the right and duty to propose ways and solutions
to implement and consolidate the Community project in which peace and stability will prevail,
for political and socio-economic integration to flourish in each regional space.
Through the debates and lectures, we will learn more about ourselves and promote the
spirit of solidarity, fraternity, cooperation and complementarity as the pillars upon which our
Community and identity are based.
Despite the progress made during the past 40 years, our Organisation has continued to
face a number of challenges and threats, especially on the economic and social front. Very re-
cently, the region was hit by cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which have caused incalculable human
and material consequences.
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic that has hit the SADC region and beyond, is the greatest
scourge of our recent history. Therefore, more than ever, we must strengthen the spirit of sol-
idarity, sisterhood and brotherhood, and collaboration, so that we can contain the spread
of the pandemic and mitigate its impact on the health sector and socio-economic
performance of each of our countries.
We must strengthen our community cohesion and resilience. As in the
past, we must now be able to overcome the present challenges with the resolve
that we have always been known for. In times of COVID-19, we must focus on
10 adapting to the pandemic, adopting a new attitude and new ways of dealing
with the processes and dynamics of our organisation's operations. We must
courageously face the fact that, if the peace, development and deepened re-
gional integration agenda is to succeed we must innovate, because life will never
be as it used to be.
Let us continue to strive toward the ideals of wellbeing, peace, prosperity
and self-sufficiency of our peoples, inspired by the victorious struggle for political
emancipation. Let us root out hunger, unemployment, illiteracy, diseases and pandemics,
such as Malaria, Tuberculosis, Ebola, HIV and AIDS, as well as acts of terror which are rea-
sons for external forces to meddle in the affairs of our region.
Let us strengthen the mechanisms for preventing and mitigating the effects of climate
change, equitable sharing of water resources, and improving the business environment in the
region by increasing intra-regional trade, making it a driver of our development.
Let us commit ourselves to a prosperous and peaceful SADC and to increasingly serving
its citizens!

H.E. FILIPE JACINTO NYUSI
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOZAMBIQUE