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Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Logo of the Southern African Development Community Flag
SADC-only (light) and SADC+SACU (dark) members
Headquarters		Gaborone, Botswana
Working languages		English, French, Portuguese
Membership		15 states
Leaders
-	Secretary General	Tomaz Salomão
Establishment
-	as the SADCC	1 April 1980
-	as the SADC	17 August 1992
Website http://www.sadc.int

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana. Its goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 15 southern African states. It complements the role of the African Union.

History[link]

The origins of SADC lie in the 1960s and 1970s, when the leaders of majority-ruled countries and national liberation movements coordinated their political, diplomatic and military struggles to bring an end to colonial and white-minority rule in southern Africa. The immediate forerunner of the political and security cooperation leg of today's SADC was the informal Frontline States (FLS) grouping. It was formed in 1980.

The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was the forerunner of the socio-economic cooperation leg of today's SADC. The adoption by nine majority-ruled southern African countries of the Lusaka declaration on 1 April 1980 paved the way for the formal establishment of SADCC in April 1980.

Membership of the FLS and SADCC sometimes differed.

SADCC was transformed into SADC on 17 August 1992, with the adoption by the founding members of SADCC and newly independent Namibia of the Windhoek declaration and treaty establishing SADC. The 1992 SADC provided for both socio-economic cooperation and political and security cooperation. In reality, the FLS was dissolved only in 1994, after South Africa's first democratic elections. Subsequent efforts to place political and security cooperation on a firm institutional footing under SADC's umbrella failed.

On 14 August 2001, the 1992 SADC treaty was amended. The amendment heralded the overhaul of the structures, policies and procedures of SADC, a process which is ongoing. One of the changes is that political and security cooperation is institutionalised in the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (OPDS). One of the principal SADC bodies, it is subject to the oversight of the organisation's supreme body, the Summit, which comprises the heads of state or government.

In 2008, the SADC agreed to establish a free trade zone with the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) including all members of each of the organizations.

Since 2000 began the formation of the SADC Free trade area with the participation of the SACU countries (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland). Next to join were Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and Madagascar. In 2008 joined Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia bringing the total number of SADC FTA members to 12. Angola, DR Congo and Seychelles are not yet participating.

Member states[link]

African Union

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SADC has 15 member states, one of whose membership is currently suspended:

•  Angola
•  Botswana
•  Democratic Republic of the Congo – since 8 September 1997
•  Lesotho
•  Malawi
•  Mauritius – since 28 August 1995
•  Mozambique
•  Namibia – since 31 March 1990 (since independence)
•  Swaziland
•  Tanzania
•  Zambia
•  Zimbabwe
•  South Africa – since 30 August 1994
• 22x20px Seychelles – also previously been a member of SADC from 8 September 1997 until 1 July 2004 then joined again in 2008.

Suspended

•  Madagascar – Membership currently suspended after the coup d'état led by the former mayor of Antananarivo Andry Rajoelina.^[1]

Challenges facing member countries[link]

SADC countries face many social, development, economic, trade, education, health, diplomatic, defence, security and political challenges. Some of these challenges cannot be tackled effectively by individual members. Cattle diseases and organised-crime gangs know no boundaries. War in one country can suck in its neighbours and damage their economies. The sustainable development that trade could bring is threatened by the existence of different product standards and tariff regimes, weak customs infrastructure and bad roads. The socio-economic and political and security cooperation aims of SADC are equally wide-ranging, and intended to address the various common challenges. ^[2]

Aims of the SADC[link]

SADC's aims are set out in different sources. The sources include the treaty establishing the organisation (SADC treaty); various protocols (other SADC treaties, such as the corruption protocol, the firearms protocol, the OPDS protocol, the health protocol and the education protocol); development and cooperation plans such as the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organ (SIPO); and declarations such as those on HIV and AIDS and food security. Not all of the pre-2001 treaties and plans have been harmonised with the more detailed and recent plans such as the RISDP and SIPO.

In some areas, mere coordination of national activities and policies is the aim of cooperation. In others, the member states aim at more far-reaching forms of cooperation. For example, on foreign policy the main aim is coordination and cooperation, but in terms of trade and economic policy, a tighter coordination is in progress with a view to one day establishing a common market with common regulatory institutions.

SADC structure and decision-making procedures[link]

The organisation has eight principal bodies:

• The Summit, comprising heads of state or heads of government
• Organ on Politics, Defence and Security
• Council of Ministers
• Tribunal
• SADC National Committees (SNCs)
• Secretariat

Except for the Tribunal (based in Windhoek, Namibia), SNCs and Secretariat, decision-making is by consensus.

SADC in practice[link]

SADC headquarters building in Gaborone, Botswana.

One significant challenge is that member states also participate in other regional economic cooperation schemes and regional political and security cooperation schemes that may compete with or undermine SADC's aims. For example, South Africa and Botswana both belong to the Southern Africa Customs Union, Zambia is a part of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Tanzania is a member of the East African Community.

On Wednesday 22 October 2008, SADC joined with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community to form the African Free Trade Zone. The leaders of the three trading blocs agreed to create a single free trade zone, the African Free Trade Zone, consisting of 26 countries with a GDP of an estimated $624bn (£382.9bn). It is hoped the African Free Trade Zone agreement would ease access to markets within the zone and end problems arising from the fact that several of the member countries belong to multiple groups.

The African Free Trade Zone effective is the realization of a dream more than a hundred years in the making, a trade zone spanning the whole African continent from Cape to Cairo and envisioned by Cecil Rhodes and other British imperialists in the 1890s. The only difference is that the African Free Trade Zone is the creation of African Countries for the mutual benefit and development of its member countries. The idea is a free trade zone spanning the whole continent from the Cape to Cairo (Cape Town in the Republic of South Africa to Cairo in Egypt).

In addition to eliminating duplicative membership and the problem member states also participating in other regional economic cooperation schemes and regional political and security cooperation schemes that may compete with or undermine each other, the African Free Trade Zone further aims to strengthen the bloc's bargaining power when negotiating international deals.

Analysts believe that the African Free Trade Zone agreement will help intra-regional trade and boost growth.

Flag[link]

The organization's current flag was created by a consensus of the people of the member countries. A competition within the member states was held to amend the flag to reflect the new acronym in the same style as used previously. Contest proposals ended in 1994 and in 1995 a new flag was chosen. The new flag has a Navy Blue field with a Green circle in the centre and SADC logo is in the middle of that green circle.

In the official description of the flag, Blue symbolises the sky and ocean that bring water and life, and green is for the rich Varied Flora and Fauna, while the regions rich gold wealth is represented in the Logo itself. The previous Flag was a blank white field with the SADCC Logo on centered on it. The Flag was first used in the 1995 SADC Summit in the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park near Johannesburg.

Leaders[link]

Chairperson[link]

• Levy Mwanawasa (c2007), died in 19 August 2008.
• Kgalema Motlanthe (2008–2009)
• Jacob Zuma (2009–2010)
• Joseph Kabila (2010–2011)
• Hifikepunye Pohamba (2011–present)

Secretaries-General[link]

• Kaire Mbuende (1994–2001)
• Prega Ramsamy (2001–2005)
• Thomas Salomao (2005–present)

Comparison with other regional blocs[link]

Timeline[link]

2007[link]

• 2 November – rail link from Chipata to Mpika proposed, providing shorter access to sea at Nacala.^[3]

2008[link]

• 12 April "Confusion surrounds Mugabe's appearance at crisis meeting"^[4]

See also[link]

• Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
• East African Community (EAC)
• Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)
• List of Trade blocs
• Southern African Customs Union (SACU)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Gabriël Oosthuizen, The Southern African Development Community: The organisation, its history, policies and prospects. Institute for Global Dialogue: Midrand, South Africa, 2006.
• John McCormick, The European Union: Politics and Policies. Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado, 2004.
• Ramsamy, Prega 2003 Global partnership for Africa. Presentation at the human rights conference on global partnerships for Africa’s development, Gaborone: SADC

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Southern African Development Community

• Official website

  Southern Africa (UN subregion)

  geographic, including above

  Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.^[1]

Definitions and usage[link]

UN scheme of geographic regions and SACU[link]

In the UN scheme of geographic regions, five countries constitute Southern Africa:^[2]

•  Botswana
•  Lesotho
•  Namibia
•  South Africa
•  Swaziland

The Southern African Customs Union (SACU), created in 1969, also comprises the five countries in the UN subregion of Southern Africa.^[3]

SADC membership[link]

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was established in 1980 to facilitate co-operation in the region. It includes:^[4]

•  Angola
•  Botswana
•  Democratic Republic of the Congo
•  Lesotho
•  Madagascar
•  Malawi
•  Mauritius
•  Mozambique
•  Namibia
• 22x20px Seychelles
•  South Africa
•  Swaziland
•  Tanzania
•  Zambia
•  Zimbabwe

General usage[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The region is sometimes reckoned to include other territories:

•  Angola – part of Central Africa in the UN scheme.
•  Comoros,  Madagascar,  Malawi,  Mayotte,  Mauritius,  Mozambique,  Réunion, 22x20px Seychelles,  Zambia,  Zimbabwe – part of Eastern Africa in the UN scheme.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania, though more commonly reckoned in Central and Eastern Africa respectively, are occasionally included in Southern Africa.

Another geographic delineation for the region is the portion of Africa south of the Cunene and Zambezi rivers – that is: South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and the southern half of Mozambique. This definition is most often used in South Africa for natural sciences and particularly in guide books such as Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa and Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. It is not used in political, economic or human geography contexts as its boundary cuts Mozambique in two.

Geography[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

A composite satellite image of South Africa, a country in the southern African region.

The terrain of Southern Africa is varied, ranging from forest and grasslands to deserts. The region has both low-lying coastal areas, and mountains.

In terms of natural resources, the region has the world's largest resources of platinum and the platinum group elements, chromium, vanadium, and cobalt, as well as uranium, gold, titanium, iron and diamonds.

Economy[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The region is distinct from the rest of Africa, with some of its main exports including platinum, diamonds, gold, and uranium, but it is similar in that it shares some of the problems of the rest of the continent. While colonialism has left its mark on the development over the course of history,^{[citation needed]} today poverty, corruption, and HIV/AIDS are some of the biggest factors impeding economic growth. The pursuit of economic and political stability is an important part of the region's goals, as demonstrated by the SADC. South Africa is the dominant economic "superpower" of the region. South Africa's GDP alone is many times greater than the GDPs of all other countries in the region.

Environmental factors[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The region has a wide diversity of ecoregions including grassland, bushveld, karoo, savannah and riparian zones. Even though considerable disturbance has occurred in some regions from habitat loss due to human overpopulation, there remain significant numbers of various wildlife species, including White Rhino, lion, leopard, impala, kudu, blue Wildebeest, Vervet monkey and elephant. It has complex Plateaus that create massive mountain structures along the South African border.

Culture and people[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Southern Africa is home to many cultures and people. It was once populated by San, Namaqua and Pygmies in widely-dispersed concentrations. Due to the Bantu expansion which edged the previous peoples to the more remote areas of the region, the majority of ethnic groups in this region, including the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele, Tswana, Sotho, and Shona people, BaLunda, Mbundu, Chaga and Sukuma, speak languages which share common Bantu language traits. The process of colonization and settling resulted in a significant population of European (Afrikaners, Anglo-Africans, Portuguese Africans, etc.) and Asian descent (Cape Malays, Indian South Africans, etc.) in many southern African countries.

See also[link]

	Geography portal
	Africa portal

• History of Southern Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Southern Africa

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