Time to review Sadc’s RISDP

must steer Sadc towards an equitable and people-centred regional integration and development process.
I am convinced that this is a worthy cause and meaningful undertaking given that we are dealing with a region that has come to progressively view poverty as the triple “jeopardy” of deprivation, vulnerability and inequality of individuals, households, communities or nations resulting in a sense of powerlessness.
In this regard, many of us now argue that poverty is a multi-dimensional complex phenomenon which includes lack of access to basic services, productive resources, physical goods, services and income, lack of participation, civil and political freedoms among others.
Therefore, it is not a natural phenomenon as often there is a paradox of the abundance of natural resources co-existing with widespread poverty. In this regard, poverty is socially constructed globally and locally, and can be deconstructed, hence our endeavour to influence RISDP as an antipoverty platform.
I have had the fortune of working with NGOs, faith-based organisations and labour movements in the region who have cemented an alliance whose vision can help us push for the Sadc we want because they are working within a strategic plan and vision rooted in the quest for an integrated regional community living in peace with itself and neighbours; characterised by a meaningful people’s participation in all aspects of development; committed to ending poverty, hunger, conflict and ensure peace, democracy, good governance and respect for human rights in a constitutionally protected environment.
In order to make informed civil society input into this review process, we have seen that Sadc Council of NGOs developing a discussion document titled “The Sadc We Want”. This was presented at the recent Eighth Civil Society Forum in Maputo, Mozambique and will also serve as the basis for the Sadc-CNGO’s long term engagement with Sadc as it outlines civil society’s vision, wishes, aspirations, guiding principles and frameworks for pro-poor, sustainable and equitable regional integration and development in the region.
It was informed by a common analysis of regional integration and development challenges, tied together by a common desire for human-centred development.
I strongly feel that Sadc member states, its organs and institutions are distant and removed from ordinary people and citizens of the region. In fact, in its current configuration, the institutions and processes of Sadc not only ignore, but actively undermine the full participation and citizenship of people.
At one level, it represents a giant leap of political and economic integration in one of the world’s poorest regions. Its evolution from the Frontline States to a modern institutional dynamo driving macro-economic and inter-state convergence, with common and accepted institutions and frameworks, represents a quantum shift of political governance and social relations.
We appreciate its aims targeted at facilitating a fundamental redefinition of political, social and economic governance for the region through, for example, a common market, a common customs union and eventually a common monetary union — all within the next decade. The impetus for these fundamental realignments within the body politic of the region is complex and manifold and not all linear in their progression. It is important to note that the complex architecture, machinery, institutions and processes have not materialised overnight, but rather over the course of at least 15 years.
Whether the time-scales are realistic, or even achievable, is debatable. The reality is that it is a process which is on-going and increasingly important. Sadc and its member states seem to have a limited understanding and weak commitment to the unfolding Sadc integration project as an exercise in democracy!
Belief and attitudes persist which regard the integration and development of the region as a technocratic and political process, where the voice of citizens is of marginal importance.
On the one hand, the benefits of regional integration are well established and almost incontrovertible. Regional integration is the only likely way to overcome existing handicaps and to allow the Sadc member states to participate in the global economy. Sharing infrastructure addresses problems of small scale and adverse location. Joint provision increases the scale of infrastructure construction, operation, and maintenance.
Economies of scale are particularly important in the power and ICT sectors. Big hydropower projects that would not be economically viable for a single country make sense when neighbours share their benefits.
Connecting countries via undersea cable or satellite communications requires large up-front investments that require a regional approach. Integrating physical infrastructure is both a precursor to and enabler of deeper economic integration, thereby helping countries to gain scale economies and harness regional public goods. The review of RISDP is therefore contextualised and socially located to deliver on this historic objective — the Sadc We Want, is indeed the Sadc We Need.
l Boichoko A Ditlhake is the executive director of Sadc Council for Non-Governmental Organisations in Gaborone, Botswana.