SANF 05 no 104
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has signed an agreement with a regional information resource centre to support the implementation, monitoring and assessment of regional development plans through information access.
The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) has been an active regional partner of SADC for more than a decade, but this relationship has been strengthened and broadened through the Memorandum of Understanding signed in October.
The agreement acknowledges the important role that “reliable, accessible and accurate information plays in regional development and integration” and in the implementation of regional policies, standards and guidelines, including the development blueprint for the next 15 years, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).
Taking account of the regional knowledge base already established by SARDC, and the institutional skills development in networking throughout the SADC region, the MOU provides the framework for strengthening current collaboration and widening it into areas such as “socio-economic trend analysis and monitoring based on accurate and reliable regional statistics and data profiles.”
In addition to current cooperation on regional economic integration, other joint initiatives can extend to areas such as disaster management information, HIV and AIDS, the Millennium Development Goals, human development, trade, history, and information technology.
The purpose is to better reflect and incorporate SADC and African perspectives and priorities in an international policy setting.
SARDC works to strengthen regional programmes for equitable and sustainable socio-economic development through the generation and dissemination of information, such as regional and continental environmental outlooks, monitoring of gender targets and the status of women and men, a number of publications on water and river basin issues, regional integration challenges, and the regional news service, the Southern African News Features (SANF).
The regional news magazine SADC Today is published bimonthly by SARDC and SADC in the three official languages of English, Portuguese and French. A Virtual Library accessible through the SARDC website, and linked to the SADC website, provides data bases and full text publications on a range of regional issues.
The Executive Secretary of SADC, Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão, visited SARDC and met with members of the management committee during his recent travel to member states. He highlighted SADC’s priorities and challenges, and the important role of strategic partnerships in advancing regional development goals.
The SARDC Chairperson, Ambassador Peter H. Katjavivi, has also hailed the new agreement as a working tool to meet the opportunities and challenges of regional development and trade initiatives.
The agreement between the two organizations recognizes that regional cooperation and integration in southern Africa “owes its origins to historical, economic, political, social and cultural factors that have created strong bonds of solidarity and unity among the peoples of the region, contributing to the formation of a distinct Southern African personality and identity that underpins political and economic cooperation.
