HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOUTHERN AFRICA DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC) -PART 2
THE OBJECTIVES AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOUTH AFRICA DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC)
The southern Africa development community has been existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine majority ruled states in southern Africa known as the southern Africa Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), with the main aims of coordinating development project in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa.
The founding members state were: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC was formed in Lusaka, Zambia on April 1, 1980, following the adoption of the Lusaka Declaration.
The transformation of the organization from a coordinating conference into a Development Community (SADC) took place on August 17, 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia when the Deceleration and treaty was signed at the summit of Heads of state and government there by giving the organization a legal character. The member state are Angola, Botswana, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, SADC headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana.
(i) Achieve development and economic growth, alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the people of Southern Africa and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration;
(ii) Promote and defend peace and security among the member state. SADC member agreed each other to make efforts on maintaining and defending peace and security.
(iii) Promote self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance, and the interdependence of Member States. SADC member states realized that economic dependency usually lead to the country to be dominated by another powerful nation which is economical strong hence the persistence on neo-colonialism. Through SADC the member states have agreed to have their own decision on economic and other social affairs.
(iv) Develop transport and communication within the member state. Most of the partner state have seasonal roads which are not in use during wet due to heavy rainfall , thus it difficult to conduct business throughout the year because of poor transport network. They agreed to develop infrastructure in order to strengthen the process of integration
(v) Promote and maximize productive employment and utilization of resources of the Region;
(vi) Achieve sustainable utilization of natural resources and effective protection of the environment;
(vii) Strengthen and consolidate the long standing historical, social and cultural affinities and links among the people of the Region.
The ultimate objective of SADC is, therefore, to build a regions in which there will be a high degree of harmonization and rationalization to enable the pooling of resources to achive collective self reliance in order to improve the living standards of the people of the region.
ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC)
i. SADC has achieved on demonstrating that regional co-operation is not only desirable but also possible.
ii. It has inculcated a sense of regional belonging as well as tradition of consultants among these people and government of southern Africa.
iii. SADC has succeed to put in place a regional programme of action – the SADC programme of Action which covers cooperation in various economic sectors
iv. Under the SADC Programme of Action a number of infrastructural project have been undertaken to rehabilities roads, railway lines and harbours as well as the development through research. The notable example is the TAZARA railway lines, which run Zambia to Tanzania.
v. The community has improved trade agreements among the member states
vi. SADC has improved agricultural activities and has promoted the industrial technology so as to produce goods with high quality.
vii. SADC has managed to promote political relationship among the member states, this due to the frequent interactions in matters related to politics such as solving political conflict in different countries.
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