SANF 24 no 16 by SARDC Writers
The 7th SADC Industrialisation Week, set for 29 July to 2 August, offers southern Africa a valuable opportunity to reflect on the progress made since the region’s leaders adopted a landmark industrial development strategy in April 2015.
The industrialisation week in the Zimbabwe capital Harare, comes at a time when the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) is vigorously pursuing an initiative to industrialise its economy.
SADC member states acknowledge that industrial development is central to the diversification of their economies; development of productive capacity; and the creation of employment to reduce poverty and set their economies on a more sustainable growth path.
The challenge facing most countries in the SADC region is to transform their economies from being raw resource-dependent to economies that enjoy beneficiated products and are knowledge-driven, dynamic and diversified.
To address this situation, the region approved the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063 during an extraordinary summit held in April 2015 in Harare.
To popularise and promote implementation of the strategy, the Council of Ministers adopted a decision in 2016 to convene the SADC Industrialisation Week annually on the margins of the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government.
The first industrialisation week was held on the sidelines of the 36th SADC Summit in Eswatini in 2016, followed by South Africa (2017), Namibia (2018), United Republic of Tanzania (2019), Malawi (2021) and Democratic Republic of Congo (2022).
There was no industrialisation week in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the event was cancelled in 2023.
Each annual gathering of political and business leaders discusses structural and other impediments to industrialisation and produces a declaration that spells out issues that require further action.
A review of some of the declarations adopted since the first edition of the SADC Industrialisation Week in 2016 shows the commitment by the SADC region to transform itself into an industrial hub in Africa.
Under the Esibayeni Declaration of 2016, member states agreed to pursue complementary initiatives to address soft and hard infrastructure shortcomings as one of the measures to improve industrialisation and trade in the region.
The soft infrastructure shortcomings that were identified included the absence of coherent industrial policies in most member states as well as the need for a regional protocol on industrialisation.
Hard infrastructure issues identified included improvement of the transport, communication and energy infrastructure as key enablers for the industrial development of the region.
The Esibayeni Declaration also committed governments to provide an enabling environment for private sector participation in industrialisation and related issues such as infrastructure development and investment.
It called for policy certainty – including stability, predictability, consistency and transparency of customs duties, electricity and other tariffs and levies – as a prerequisite to attract investment for regional industrialisation.
The Sunninghill Declaration adopted in Johannesburg in 2017 acknowledged the inequalities that exist among SADC member states with respect to levels of industrial development and noted that “only through deeper regional integration can smaller and weaker economies be able to overcome their limitations.”
The Sunninghill Declaration also called for the development of a robust regional programme to raise awareness of the industrialisation agenda among the public.
The 3rd SADC Industrialisation Week held in Namibia produced the Windhoek Declaration whose main takeaway was a call for the region to actively involve the youth, women and the private sector in policy-making processes on regional integration, industrialisation and economic development.
It also observed that small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) largely remained on the fringes in terms of access to industrialisation opportunities and could benefit from ongoing regional integration efforts.
It noted that the main beneficiaries of SADC’s industrialisation thrust were big firms and that there was need to devise appropriate strategies to enable the youth, women and MSMEs to access capital and credit.
In addition, the Windhoek Declaration called for an increase in research, development and innovation funding by both public and private sectors to advance knowledge generation and productivity to stimulate industrial development.
Now in its seventh edition, the 7th SADC Industrialisation Week presents another platform to review progress on the state of play with respect to the implementation of the industrialisation agenda in the region, as well as to chart the way forward.
The critical question will be whether the region is on course to meeting its commitments as per the industrialisation strategy’s 15-year action plan that runs until 2030.
The action plan was divided into two phases, with the first phase running from 2016-2020 and the second one from 2021-2030.
Activities that were supposed to be met under the first phase included development of a SADC Protocol of Industry; alignment of national industrial policies with the industrialisation strategy; development of a SADC Raw Material Initiative; identification of regional value chains; and establishment/strengthening of national and regional innovation systems.
One of the targets of the industrialisation strategy’s action plan is the “Factory SADC” initiative, which envisages increased production and use of SADC raw materials as feedstock for downstream processing in agro-industries and other manufacturing industries.
The target was to have a SADC Raw Material Strategy developed and implemented by 2020, according to the action plan.
Planned initiatives under the second phase of the action plan include having in place at least 20 implementable regional value chain strategies by 2030 and implementation by member states of identified programmes and policy instruments to improve industrial competitiveness between 2021 and 2030.
Some progress has been made in addressing some of these issues, with a SADC Protocol on Industry adopted by the 39th SADC Summit held in Tanzania in August 2019 and the region benefitting from cooperation in the energy sector.
Latest figures from the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) show that a total of 1,261 megawatts (MW) of new generation capacity was commissioned across the region in 2023 alone, with some 16,179MW generation capacity planned to be commissioned by 2027.
The Harare-based SAPP is making strides to ensure that the power grids of all its 12 member states are interconnected to allow utilities in these countries to trade in electricity.
The 7th SADC Industrialisation Week will be held under the theme, “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialised SADC”.
It will kick off with a SADC Investment Forum to be officially opened by Zimbabwe Vice President, Dr Constantino Chiwenga on 29 July.
The official opening of the industrialisation week is scheduled for 31 July and that will be presided over by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Other highlights will include a week-long exhibition by companies and organisations from the region.
Proceedings are expected to culminate in the adoption of the Harare Declaration on 1 August. (sardc.net)
