By Munetsi Madakufamba – SANF 04 no 22
Implementation of a new 15-year development plan of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), food security and HIV and AIDS were some of the issues that dominated the Council of Ministers meeting held on 12-13 March in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.
Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa who currently holds the rotating SADC chair, launched the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), a 147-page blueprint. The RISDP identifies a number of socio-economic and political priority areas, supported by time-bound targets for the region, over the next one-and-half decades.
One of the overarching targets is to halve, by 2015, the number of people living on less than US$1 per day. This is to be achieved through annual economic growth rates of at least seven percent. These targets are also in line with the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Launching the RISDP, President Mkapa said, “There is no other path towards poverty eradication except through sustainable economic growth and development. … In addressing this challenge, peace, security, stability and good governance are critical. Sound fiscal, economic and social policies are equally essential.”
President Mkapa called on southern Africa to unite in the fight against poverty. In fighting poverty and deprivation, he said, “we need all the people in southern Africa to feel deeply for this struggle, to be attached to it…”
Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Jakaya Kikwete, who chaired the Council of Ministers, said the main objective of the RISDP is to provide member states and other stakeholders with a coherent and comprehensive long-term development framework.
Sustainable food security is one of the intervention areas identified in the RISDP. In response to the recurrent nature of food shortages in the region, President Mkapa is convening an Extra Ordinary Summit in Dar es Salaam on 14 May 2004. Council reviewed preparations for the summit, noting that over seven million people will need food aid this year.
The summit objectives are:
to consider short, medium and long term strategies to ensure food security in the region;
taking into consideration the experience of last year’s food crisis, review the issue of emergency preparedness as well as the over-dependency on rain-fed agriculture, which has among other things, greatly contributed to food insecurity in the region; and
review a regional strategy to transform the region’s agricultural-dependent economies to agro-led industrialisation, which ensures food access and improved incomes for both rural and urban communities.
Prior to the Council of Ministers meeting, SADC ministers of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources met in Dar es Salaam in February. They agreed on an action plan that will be considered by the upcoming summit. Council instructed the Secretariat to finalise the plan of action before end of March.
Regarding HIV and AIDS, Council reviewed progress on implementation of decisions that were taken at the Maseru Summit on HIV and AIDS in July 2003. These include the establishment of a special HIV and AIDS unit at the Secretariat. This unit has since been established under the chief director to ensure that AIDS-related issues are mainstreamed in all the core areas of integration.
In addition, a regional meeting of national AIDS councils, the first of its kind, is expected to take place in May 2004, to finalise a four-year business plan as mandated by the Maseru Summit. The exact date and venue are being finalised. SADC is also mobilising resources through an HIV and AIDS Trust Fund, which would be used to support programmes aimed at fighting the pandemic.
Reaffirming the importance of gender parity in the region, Council applauded the landmark example shown by Mozambique in appointing Luisa Diogo as the first ever woman Prime Minister in the SADC region. Diogo, who is also the finance minister, took over from Pascal Mocumbi who retired last month.
On restructuring of SADC institutions, the ministers approved the recruitment of four directors to head the core areas of integration, namely: Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment; Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources; Infrastructure and Services; and Social and Human Development and Special Programmes. The directors are expected to assume office by the time of the ordinary summit of SADC, to be hosted by Mauritius in August 2004.
To support priority areas identified by the Secretariat during the 2004-5 financial year, the ministers approved a US$16-million budget. Among the priorities is the implementation of the RISDP.
On international relations, SADC is to hold a regional stakeholder workshop to consult on a draft Protocol on Relations between the AU and Regional Economic Communities. Council will consider recommendations of the workshop when it meets on the eve of the Food Summit in May.
As per the directive of SADC Summit last August, a high level ministerial meeting on NEPAD is to be held in Zanzibar in May. “This meeting will facilitate the integration of NEPAD into SADC’s regional integration programme activities,” said Kikwete.
The ministers also approved two themes for the SADC-EU ministerial conference, scheduled for Maastricht, Netherlands, in October 2004. The themes are “Political, Economic and Social Aspects of Regional Integration” and “Investing in People”.
Regarding the Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union that are currently being negotiated in the framework of the Cotonou Agreement, the Council of Ministers endorsed the SADC Negotiation Guidelines and Road Map as recommended by ministers of trade. Botswana was appointed chief negotiator for SADC while Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Tanzania will lead negotiations on various technical matters.
The Council of Ministers also agreed that the next Consultative Conference, which is a meeting between SADC and its international cooperating partners, would be held in November 2004. The meeting is expected to focus on raising resources for the RISDP, the HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework and Plan of Action, and the Food Security Summit Plan of Action.
After the Extra Ordinary Summit on Food Security, the Council of Ministers will meet again in August, on the eve of the Ordinary Summit of SADC in Mauritius. (SARDC)
