by Munetsi Madakufamba – SANF 05 no 17
MAURITIUS, 25 February — The implementation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) development strategy for 2005 is now in motion following approval of its annual budget and business plans by the Council of Ministers.
The Council approved a massive US$37.5 million-budget, representing a more than 100 percent jump from the previous year.
Speaking to the media at the close of the two-day Council of Ministers in Mauritius, SADC Executive Secretary said the huge jump in the annual budget has been necessitated by the new roll out strategy of the organisation’s two development plans, and the enlarged staff structure at the Secretariat.
SADC is coming to the end of a long restructuring exercise which has centralised operations at the Botswana-based Secretariat, and has given birth to two long-term plans — the Regional Indicative Development Plan (RISDP) and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO) on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.
A Consultative Conference of SADC partners which was due to be convened in Mauritius on 25-27 April to rally financial support for the two development plans has been postponed to October. The venue is yet to be decided.
Ramsamy said the postponement was a result of two reasons – the level of confirmed representation from donors was not senior enough to match that of SADC which is at ministerial level, and to allow member states sufficient time to make input into the technical documents.
“Now we are going to go on a campaign to encourage our cooperating partners to send delegations at ministerial level,” said Ramsamy. He added that this postponement is not going to hamper the implementation of the development plans as SADC does not rely entirely on donor funds.
With regards to the looming power shortages in the region, the ministers instructed the Southern African Power Pool to organise a Regional Electricity Investment Conference in Namibia in June 2005. The conference is expected to mobilise resources to fund power generation and transmission projects.
The SADC Summit in August last year expressed grave concern that the region will run out of surplus energy generation capacity by 2007 if no new projects come on board. A steering committee was thus set up comprising energy ministers from Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Council also directed that the Western Corridor Project — a joint venture power initiative involving Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and South Africa — be extended to all SADC countries. This should be supported by a SADC-wide representation of ministers on the steering committee.
The ministers noted that current multilateral negotiations between the European Union (EU) and individual regional groups such as SADC are divisive.
The EU is negotiating economic partnership agreements with individual groupings as opposed to the larger African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries.
The negotiations have presented a number of challenges including the fact that a number of SADC countries are members of other regional groups that are also participating in the process. These include the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and the East African Community (EAC).
A committee of ambassadors accredited to Botswana was formed to play an advisory role to the Secretariat and member states. Botswana is SADC’s chief negotiator to the EU on the economic partnership agreements.
The negotiations are to be concluded in 2008, which will coincide with the creation of a SADC Free Trade Area. (SARDC)
