SANF 21 no 3
At least 79 percent of regional activities, programmes and projects aimed at deepening integration in southern Africa were implemented between April and December 2020 despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax said this at the Council of Ministers meeting which was held virtually on 12 March.
She said the implementation rate was a bit lower compared to the previous period due to various factors including the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Described as the most serious health emergency in generations by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the novel coronavirus, commonly known as COVID-19 has affected the global socio-economic landscape and resulted in the loss of many lives.
“In terms of implementation of the 2020/2021 Annual Corporate Plan, an implementation rate of 79 percent was recorded for April to December 2020 period,” Dr Tax said in her opening remarks, adding that “this implementation rate is lower by 5 percentage points compared to 84 percent recorded during the same period in the financial year 2019/20.”
To address the lower implementation rate caused by the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the SADC Secretariat developed a Business Continuity Plan, which enabled the region to implement most of the planned activities virtually.
However, there are some activities, programmes and projects that cannot be implemented or undertaken virtually.
Dr. Tax said progress towards the implementation of decisions made by the 40th SADC Heads of States and Government Summit in August 2020 is also satisfactory.
The SADC Heads of State and Government Summit is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of functions of the Community, ultimately making it the supreme policy-making institution of SADC.
“In terms of the August 2020 Summit Decisions, a total of 13 Decisions were fully implemented, out of the 26 Decisions, representing 50 percent completion rate. The remaining decisions are long term in nature, and implementation is ongoing,” she said.
Some of the milestones achieved include increasing power generation in the region. For example, in 2020 alone, SADC through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) managed to add a total of 2,480 Megawatts of new electricity to the regional grid.
This represents about 77 percent of the targeted capacity of 3,215 MW that was expected to be commissioned in 2020.
The addition of new electricity to the regional power grid is critical as it allows SADC Member States to share surplus energy.
All mainland SADC Member States with the exception of Angola, Malawi and the United Republic of Tanzania are interconnected through the SAPP regional grid.
Plans are now at an advanced stage to interconnect Angola, Malawi and Tanzania to the SAPP network. SAPP is responsible for coordinating the planning, generation, transmission and marketing of electricity on behalf of member state utilities in SADC.
Another milestone is that SADC has continued to register positive results in the area of the regional payment system through the SADC Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS).
“The total number of transactions settled in the system as of December 2020 was 1,995,355 representing the value of ZAR 7.81 trillion,” Dr Tax said, adding that “work is progressing to bring on-board other currencies on the system including provision to settle low value payments.”
Launched in October 2018, the SADC RTGS has enabled Member States to settle payments among themselves in real-time compared to previously when it used to take several days for banks to process crossborder transactions.
This system has resulted in reduced transaction costs as it removes the need for correspondent banks.
On infrastructure development, implementation of the SADC Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP) is progressing well.
Approved in 2012, the RIDMP is the strategy for the development of integrated regional infrastructure in southern Africa at an estimated cost of more than US$500 billion to meet projected demand by 2027.
Implementation of the RIDMP is being done in three phases, covering the Short Term Action Plan (STAP) 2012-2017, the Medium Term Action Plan that runs up to 2022, and the Long Term Action Plan to be implemented up to 2027.
“A total of 63 infrastructure projects including 17 regional Energy projects were developed under the second Priority Action Plan for Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA PAP 2).
“Out of these, three energy projects have been shortlisted, these are the Luapula Hydro-power between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia; the Baynes Hydro-power between Namibia and Angola; and ZiZaBoNa transmission interconnector between Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.”
Dr Tax said the speedy implementation of these and other regional activities, programmes and projects is critical to promoting sustainable development and industrialization in southern Africa.
Industrialization remains a key priority for the region because an industrialized SADC will allow countries in the region to diversify their economies and utilize local resources through comprehensive value-addition.
Most African countries continue to be among the poorest in the world despite abundant natural resources as the majority of them export these in their raw or unprocessed form.
While SADC has been recording positive progress to promote industrialization, Dr Tax said the share of the manufacturing sector to overall gross domestic product remains low, estimated at about 12 percent.
It is, therefore, important for the region to come up with vibrant strategies and initiatives to address this challenge.
These strategies include the need to speed-up the implementation of profiled value chains in priority areas, as well as to encourage the private sector to take advantage of these value chains to promote sustainable development.
Promotion of value chains will enable SADC member states to specialise in those productive processes and activities where they have competitive advantages.
To date, the profiling of value chains in the minerals, pharmaceutical and agro-processing sectors has been completed.
Another initiative is to operationalize the SADC Regional Development Fund as most regional projects require adequate and sustainable funding.
The operationalization of the SADC Regional Development Fund is critical as it will allow SADC to finance its own regional activities, programmes and projects.
It is estimated that only around 10 percent of regional projects are funded by SADC Member States while the balance comes from international cooperating partners. This situation has compromised the sustainability of regional programmes
The SADC Council of Ministers, which is being held virtually and coordinated from Mozambique is thus expected to discuss a wide range of issues aimed at advancing regional cooperation, integration and socio-economic development.
It will also consider the regional plan and budget for financial year 2021/22.
The SADC Council consists of Ministers from each Member State, usually from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economic Planning, or Finance, who meet twice a year in February/March and immediately prior to the SADC Summit in August or September.
The Council of Ministers oversees the functioning and development of SADC, and ensures that policies and decisions are implemented. sardc.net
