Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a regional organization comprised of 14 southern African countries. It evolved from the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) which was established in 1980 to mobilize resources for national, interstate, and regional development so that "front line" countries might reduce their dependence on South Africa. SADCC became SADC in 1992 when the organization’s role shifted from confronting South Africa to creating a regional common market. The SADC Treaty also commits member states to evolve common political values, systems, and institutions and to promote and defend peace and security. To achieve these objectives, SADC member states seek to coordinate and harmonize their international relations. SADC aims to secure international understanding, cooperation, and support and mobilize the inflow of public and private resources into the region.

The SADC Summit is made up of Heads of State and is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of functions within the Community. The SADC Council of Ministers advises the Summit on policy matters and approves SADC policies, strategies, and work programs. At SADC's extraordinary summit in March 2001, a new organizational structure was adopted. The region's leaders decided to merge SADC's 21 sectoral, coordinating units run by individual member states into four clusters (social and human development; trade, industry, finance, and investment; infrastructure and services; and food, agriculture, and natural resources). Another important decision taken at the March Summit was to make the SADC Organ on Politics, Defense, and Security accountable to the Summit and to rotate the Organ's leadership annually, using a troika system. The October 2002 SADC Summit selected Angola as chair and Tanzania as vice-chair of the organization.

The objectives of SADC are to:

• 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;
• Evolve common political values, systems, and institutions;
• Promote and defend peace and security;
• Promote self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance and the interdependence of member states;
• Achieve complementarity between national and regional strategies and programs;
• Promote and maximize productive employment and utilisation of resources of the region;
• Achieve sustainable utilization of natural resources and effective protection of the environment; and
• Strengthen and consolidate the long-standing historical, social, and cultural affinities and links among the people of the region.

SADC member states are: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.