16 Jun 2024

Angola President, João Lourenço has praised  the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for Regional Peace and Integration Efforts

During his visit to the SADC headquarters in Gaborone, President Lourenço commended SADC for its role in fostering regional peace and stability.

Acknowledging the dedication of the organisation’s staff, President Lourenço lauded SADC’s effectiveness in comparison to other sub-regional bodies on the continent.

In particular, he congratulated the executive secretary and members of the SADC secretariat management for their commitment to key projects and numerous initiatives that have emanated from their efforts.

 The President highlighted the successful organisation of various summits, including the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government and the Extraordinary Summit addressing political and security matters.

President Lourenço also praised the secretariat’s emphasis on gender equality, noting that women held a significant proportion of management positions within the organisation. As the current chairperson of SADC, he emphasised the importance of the organization’s projects and initiatives in promoting regional integration.

One key aspect President Lourenço mentioned was the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), which he regarded as pivotal in advancing progress and development within the region.

He underscored the significance of intra-regional trade and called for streamlined procedures to facilitate the smooth operation of the free trade area, enabling countries to achieve the integration goals outlined in the regional protocol.

On other issues, President Lourenço said SADC countries must develop a plan for the construction of infrastructure in the region as well as the expansion and improvement of the existing one to facilitate interconnectedness among different countries in the region.

“We can derive shared benefits from the capacity and potential available in each member state under a framework of complementarity and shared advantages,” he said.

He noted the immense energy potential in the region, saying funds should be mobilised for hydroelectric, wind and solar projects as well as to build transmission lines throughout the region. 

He added that his country had enough power and that it could assist other SADC countries facing an energy crisis.

For his part, Mr Elias Magosi expressed gratitude to President Lourenço for recognising their efforts in promoting regional integration and development.

Mr Magosi said the many challenges that SADC founders grappled with 44 years ago had evolved to become opportunities of the modern era, but that ‘peace, security and good governance remain the foundation.’ 

He said without peace and security, the region would not achieve shared developmental goals as defined in the regional development plan and the SADC Vision 2050.

Mr Magosi said the Luanda Process remained SADC's beacon of hope to bring lasting peace in the eastern DRC, adding that President Lourenço had their full support to initiate peace talks.

Furthermore, Mr Magosi said the region’s development needs, coupled with the measures to preserve peace and security, required mobilising resources to support the regional integration agenda.

He said they were mobilising resources for prioritised projects under the six strategic priority areas, and that they mobilised US$185 million to support implementation of the RISDP 2020-2030.

However, he said they still needed more resources and that estimated funds required to implement identified priority projects was over US$50 billion.

He said the region needed to explore innovative and sustainable financing mechanisms and that it was vital to fast-track the operationalisation of the SADC regional development fund. Ends