Page 10 - 40th Summit Brochure 2020

The challenges posed by COVID-19 deserve a response commensurate with their scale. We
should be inspired to find bolder and more resilient solutions, so that our region continues to show
rapid economic growth.
We must push the performance envelope and innovate, the reason why we are holding this
Summit virtually, as the first of its kind in the history of the Organisation, precisely so as not to allow
the adversities arising from COVID-19 to make it impossible for us to achieve the objectives outlined
in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan and those of each Member State.
For the 40th Summit, we chose the theme, “SADC: 40 Years Building Peace and Security,
and Promoting Development and Resilience in the Face of Global Challenges”. This is a topical
theme which highlights the need to enhance socio-economic development in an environment of
peace and stability, even as adversities caused by climate change and other global challenges persist.
The theme also calls on us, as SADC Member States, to share experiences of resilience and
innovation that will enable us to achieve, without fail, the objectives spelled out in the RISDP for the
welfare of present and future generations.
In SADC, we have always been aware of the global village that we live in, whose dynamics are
not compelled by locally based and influenced solutions to the problems we face, which require
greater capacity to take advantage of emerging opportunities.
Therefore, we are encouraged by the vision of the founders for our Organisation who defined a
development model in which national strategies integrate as building blocks of a community on a
larger scale.
This is why we must pursue more forcefully the consolidation of our regional integration, as
the more integrated we are, the better we will enhance the development of our own countries and
make the Southern African Development Community more sustainable.
This will only be possible if we all remain committed to implementing strategic programmes
and projects for inclusive economic development to reduce social inequalities and poverty, and raise
the standard of living of our peoples.
Our development objectives will only be achieved in an environment of peace and stability,
which is why fighting terrorism, a scourge that is already being felt across our region, is an urgent
priority. 7
Given its fluid nature and connection with organised crime, we must deal with it head on,
under the framework of the African Union Convention on Combating and Preventing Terrorism,
by taking coordinated actions against all types of crime, by planning ahead, identifying and
neutralising its agents and cutting off their ties.
Again, may I reiterate my great pleasure to welcome you virtually to this 40th Summit of SADC
Heads of State and Government. It is our hope that the 40th Anniversary of our regional Organisation
will be celebrated with great excitement and intense enthusiasm, certain that together we shall
persevere against all odds, including against the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are confident that the set of decisions coming out of this Summit will propel our
Organisation into greater heights in the shared future of prosperity and wellbeing that we have always
fought for.
A Luta Continua! The Struggle Continues!

H.E. FILIPE JACINTO NYUSI
President of the Republic Mozambique