The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of States met in August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe for the 44 th time under the theme “Promoting innovation to unlock opportunities for sustained economic growth and development towards an industrialised SADC”. In 2020, SADC adopted a 10-year regional strategy – the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020 to 2030 – which seeks to realise SADC’s Vision 2050, “a peaceful, inclusive, middle to high income industrialised region, where all citizens enjoy sustainable economic well-being, justice and freedom.” The RISDP 2020-2030 highlights the importance of government partnerships with non-state actors (NSAs) to ensure the successful implementation of regional policies and programmes.
This year, TrustAfrica joined seventeen other non-state actors coordinated by the Partnership for Social Accountability (PSA) alliance to assess regional and national progress of RISDP and offer recommendations to SADC and its member states. Over 200 people, joined the dialogue virtually and from meetings in three locations (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Lusaka, Zambia; and Harare, Zimbabwe), representing various non-state actors (NSAs), including civil society organisations (CSOs), smallholder farmers’ associations, trade unions, youth organisations, people’s movements, faith-based organisations and media outlets, as well as SADC Secretariat, SADC Parliamentary Forum (PF), SADC National Committees, SADC National Contact Points, the Strengthening National Regional Linkages programme of GIZ, and other government departments.
The Dialogue called for prioritisation of the integration of agroecology and farmer-managed seed systems in the new SADC Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP) 2025-2030, with a focus on financing (allocating at least 50% of agriculture budget for agroecology), as well as increased support for rural transformation focusing on climate proofed infrastructure (ICT, electricity, irrigation, rural roads) and services (education, health). Additional instruments, as committed to in the RISDP implementation plan, must also be implemented, including the Agricultural Development Fund, Irrigation Strategy, and Crop Value Chain, as well as the development of the Agricultural Extension Services Strategy, Rural Clustering, and Repository of Indigenous Seeds.
RISDP Dialogue 2024 communique.pdf
