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railways, border post, industrial development, and Maputo port through joint Public
Private Sector participation. The Toll Road project drew the highest rating ever in project
finance worldwide in 1998 for its ability to meet long-term debt.

Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre
The SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre
was officially opened in June 1999 to build capacity SADC RPTC
for peace support operations, and for conflict
management and prevention, through training of Regional centre of excellence in
civilian, police and military personnel, and to assist in
planning for SADC peacekeeping exercises and peacekeeping training
operations. The RPTC is hosted by Zimbabwe.

Finance and Investment
SADC Ministers of Finance and Investment held their 5 annual meeting in July 1999,
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and adopted resolutions on the sale of gold; debt relief and the HIPC initiative; relations
with the World Bank, investment promotion; and Year 2000 (Y2K) Compliance.

Theme of SADC Annual Consultative Conference in February 1999
SADC in the next Millennium: The Challenges and Opportunities of Information Technology

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The 19 SADC Summit was held in Maputo, Mozambique on 17-18 1999-2000
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August 1999 under the Chairmanship of President Thabo Mvuyelwa
Mbeki of South Africa.
President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria was Guest of Honour at the
Summit, also attended by three former Presidents from the initial Frontline States – H.E.
Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania; H.E. Dr Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, and H.E. Sir
Quett Ketumile Joni Masire of Botswana.

Toward 30 percent women
Recalling that the 1997 Declaration on Gender and Development commits SADC
Member States to achieve at least 30 percent women in political and decision-making
structures by the year 2005, the Summit noted with concern that the SADC average for
women in Parliament and in Cabinet respectively, is 15 percent and 12 percent. Member
States were urged to adopt specific measures, including constitutional or legislated quotas.
The first edition of the SADC Gender Monitor was published in 1999 to track progress
toward these commitments. The SADC Gender and Development Monitor continues to publish
at intervals for this purpose and seven editions had been produced by 2018 with the eighth
edition at planning stage in 2020, as well as data updates accessible online. These
knowledge products are produced through a SADC MOU with the Southern African
Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) for a knowledge partnership in various
sectors, first signed in 1995, renewed in 2005 and refreshed in 2015.
The year 1999 marks 20 years since the UN General Assembly committed to ensure
rights for women through the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which SADC Member States are parties to,
and which defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets an agenda to
end the exclusion of women from politics, law, justice, employment, work, the economy,
social services, health, education, culture, religion, and other areas.