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Introduction
The Southern African Development Community (SADC),1 the subregion’s premier
co-ordinating and integrating body, has reached the ten-year milestone. It has no
doubt been an eventful decade for the SADC; yet its achievements and performance
have been uneven at best. While, contrary to popular belief, some SADC leaders
have shown a real commitment to regional integration, the organisation itself has
been poor at implementing decisions, and closing the gap between formulating and
adopting norms and values and realising them in practice. Indeed, the SADC has
failed to meet most of its policy objectives in terms of actual outcomes.
A decade after its inception, SADC leaders decided, and wisely so, that there was
a need not only to take stock of the organisation’s performance, but also to review
its policies and put in place new plans and programmes where necessary. As a result,
SADC leaders mandated the institution to develop a Common Agenda and
Strategic Priorities in order to help it face the next decade with confidence.
SADC leaders and officials consequently agreed to develop a Regional Indicative
Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), aimed at providing member states, SADC institutions,
and key stakeholders with a comprehensive plan for operationalising (or
effectively implementing) the Common Agenda and Strategic Priorities over the
next decade, with firm mandates, and within definite time frames.2
SADC leaders embarked on a massive overhaul of SADC activities. This comprehensive
review has sought to address a number of crucial issues: policy-making, coordination,
and implementation; the establishment of norms, values and institutions;
and the appropriation of power.
SADC leaders then mandated a review committee to evolve a Regional Indicative
Strategic Framework (RISF), and to affirm three sets of objectives:3
- economic measures focusing on the alleviation of poverty, industrial development, trade, macroeconomic policies, investment, and infrastructure;
- political priorities, including a concern for democratic governance, and mechanisms for conflict prevention, management, and resolution; and
- social goals, focusing on gender issues, human resources, HIV/AIDS, and social welfare.
Other priority areas include the development of science and technology, research
and development; effective disaster preparedness and management mechanisms;
and the consolidation of international co-operation with other regional and
subregional entities.
This paper is concerned with the second priority area, namely the political cluster
and its focus on democratic governance, conflict resolution, and peace and security.
It will specifically focus on the SADC’s efforts to transform it into a robust political
and security community, and grapple with the subregional body’s institutional,
governance, and implementation challenges.
Footnotes
- SADC’s 14 member states are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
- Jan Isaksen, Restructuring SADC – Progress and Problems, Chr Michelsen Institute, Norway, Report R 2002: 15, executive summary.
- Ibid.
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- 258Kb ~ 1 min (25 pages)
