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✒ SADC Parliamentary Forum
The initiative to establish the SADC Parliamentary Forum was welcomed and approved by the
17th SADC Summit held in August 1997 in Blantyre, Malawi. The SADC PF hosted by the Parliament
of Namibia in Windhoek is an autonomous institution comprising the national parliaments of
Member States and seeks to promote dialogue and popular participation to familiarise and bring
SADC closer to the people of the region, strengthening the concept of community building.

✒ Regional Parliament
The first historic steps have been taken towards the transformation of the SADC Parliamentary
Forum into a Regional Parliament with the establishment of a Task Force to analyse the
proposed transformation. A Regional Parliament would facilitate more extensive debate on
regional issues and thus accelerate the implementation of SADC protocols that need to be
ratified and domesticated into national legislation, and become a key driver of integration
and development, bridging the gap between citizens and regional integration processes.
✒ Centres of Excellence
To facilitate the faster implementation of programmes, SADC has established Centres of
Excellence (CoEs) and Centres of Specialisation (CoS) covering priority areas, including the
SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (SACREEE). Frameworks and
guidelines have been approved for the establishment of CoEs and CoS in other thematic areas.

✒ Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis Programme
The RVAA Programme was established in 1999 and is being implemented in 15 Member States.
This has evolved to be one of the most reliable and robust early warning tools for agriculture as
well as food and nutrition security interventions in the region.
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✒ Establishment of Multi-Economy Accreditation Body
The SADC Accreditation Services (SADCAS) was established in 2005 to coordinate accreditation
services in 13 Member States that do not have national accreditation bodies. The SADCAS
operational model, which is the first multi-economy accreditation body in the world, has proven
to be a viable, cost-effective and sustainable model that optimises the use limited financial and
human resources.

✒ Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum
SADC established the Southern African Regional Climate Outlook Forum (SARCOF) to improve
climate and weather forecasting. The SARCOF provides a platform for Member States to review
and forecast the rainfall season in the region, and discuss the potential impacts of the seasonal
climate outlook on socio-economic sectors including disaster risk management, food security,
health, water resources and hydropower management.

✒ Improved Transboundary Cooperation in Water and other Natural Resources
Cooperation and coordination has improved transboundary management of resources, thus
reducing potential conflicts over shared resources. Examples of such cooperation include
the establishment of River Basin Organisations and Transfrontier Conservation Areas across
the region.

✒ Adoption of Kiswahili as a SADC Official Language
Kiswahili was approved as an official working language of SADC with English, French and
Portuguese. It was agreed that Kiswahili would be adopted at the level of Council and Summit,
first for oral communication before eventually being adopted for written official communication
within SADC.