As Southern Africa confronts a rapidly changing landscape shaped by climate change, food insecurity, economic transformation and growing demands for citizen participation, TrustAfrica joined regional stakeholders at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit in Durban to advance conversations on the future of the region.
Held under the theme, “Resilient, Sustainable and Inclusive Industrialisation through Infrastructure Development, Agricultural and Critical Minerals Transformation in Pursuit of a Just World,” the Summit provided an important platform for regional leaders, civil society, young people and other stakeholders to reflect on the pathways towards a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable Southern Africa.
For TrustAfrica, participation in the engagements around the Summit was rooted in a longstanding commitment to sustaining African agency, ensuring that Africans have the voice, power and opportunity to shape the decisions and development pathways that affect their lives.
Through engagements on food systems, citizen participation and youth leadership, TrustAfrica listened to perspectives from communities and actors at the forefront of the region’s most pressing challenges.
For TrustAfrica, these engagements reinforced a central principle: Africa’s development cannot be shaped for its people without being shaped with them. The conversations in Durban come as TrustAfrica marks its 20th Anniversary under the theme, “Sustaining African Agency to Shape the Future.”
For two decades, TrustAfrica has worked to strengthen the capacity of African actors and institutions to define and drive solutions to the continent’s challenges. The SADC Summit provided another opportunity to advance this commitment by creating space for diverse voices to inform conversations about the region’s future. Across discussions on food systems, democratic participation and youth leadership, one message was clear: the people who live and work in Southern Africa must be at the heart of shaping the region’s future.
Their knowledge, experiences, ideas and aspirations are not peripheral to development. They are essential to building societies that are more resilient, inclusive and just.
As TrustAfrica enters its third decade, the engagements at the SADC Summit reaffirm the importance of its work to strengthen African agency and amplify voices that are too often excluded from decision-making.
