Southern African Development Community (SADC) – Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation
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Southern African Development Community (SADC) – Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation
SADC House
Private Bag 0095
Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267 3951 863
Fax: +267 3972 848
Email: registry@sadc.int
Website: http://www.sadc.int
Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão, Executive Secretary, tsalomao@sadc.int
Dr. Remigious Makumbe, Chief Director, Department for Politics, Defence and Security, rmakumbe@sadc.int
Mr. James Machakaire, Senior Officer, Peacebuilding, SADC Defence Organ, jmachakaire@sadc.int
Description
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) came into being as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) in 1980, a loose alliance of nine Southern Africa independent states. Its aim at the time was to coordinate economic development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on South Africa, then an apartheid state. In August 1992, in Windhoek, Namibia, SADC was formed. Its member states are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana. SADC’s current objectives include evolving common political values, systems and institutions; promoting and defending peace and security; and promoting self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance and the interdependence of Member States.
SADC’s latest approach to addressing conflicts and promoting peace and security in the sub-region is spelled out in the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Defence Organ (SIPO)—whose objective is to create a peaceful and stable political and security environment through which the region will try to realize its socio-economic objectives. SIPO was launched in 2004, five years after SADC leaders decided to restructure all` the Community’s institutions, including the SADC Defence Organ (originally established in 1996). SIPO is guided by the 2001 Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, which provides an institutional framework by which Member States coordinate peace and security-related policies and activities.
Track Record
As presently constituted, SADC’s peace and security architecture and mechanisms constitute a well thought-out an ambitious project, providing for collaborative security, collective security, and collective self-defense against external aggression.
Progress has been registered in operationalizing SIPO, notably in the setting up of a SADC Standby Brigade (SADCBRIG) and its civilian component, as part of the AU African Standby Force (ASF) to be deployed by 2010. All member states have made specific pledges of troop contributions, and the process is on track to meet the AU’s deadline. A Planning Centre (PLANELM) has been established at the SADC secretariat in Gaborone, and command, control and logistics arrangements are being put in place.
The SADC Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre (RPTC) in Harare, Zimbabwe, which went into decline after Denmark and other donors withdrew financial support in 2002, has been revitalized. It now reports to the SADC Secretariat and is being funded from member states’ contributions. Efforts are also underway to revisit the idea of a SADC clearinghouse for peace support training activities at the RPTC.
The Situation Room, envisaged as the hub of SADC’s early warning system, has been set up under the Strategic Analysis Unit. Insecurity and conflict indicators have been completed, and these are in the process of being adapted to the sub-regional context, while software is being developed for the system. Staffers have been seconded from South African and Namibia.
SADC’s electoral protocol, which stipulates benchmarks for free and fair elections, has been used and adhered to in conducting and monitoring elections in the region. Cooperation has also been stepped up to address a number of other defense and security issues in the region, including combating terrorist activities; countering trafficking in small arms; protecting strategic infrastructure; combating stock theft; protecting wildlife; harmonizing immigration legislation between member states; and addressing refugee issues, law enforcement at sea and joint border control.
Challenges
Despite these achievements, SADC faces a number of challenges and constraints that stand in the way of its effective implementation of the provisions of SIPO. One is the lack of consensus over the SADC Organ, which was beset from the outset by differences in mid-1990s between Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe—designated life chair of the Organ –and then SADC Chair Nelson Mandela. Arguments over the Organ’s role, composition and its relationship with national, regional international levels and initiatives have weakened the Community’s ability to address conflicts in the region, including the crisis in Zimbabwe itself.
As a result of this lack of momentum, Southern African peace and security-focused policy research institutes, think tanks and CSOs have tended to bypass SADC and focus their attention on the AU architecture instead. This had led to a situation where, aside from the progress in setting up SADCBRIG as part of the ASF, linkages between the SADC and AU systems are weak.
There are also questions over the SADC Organ fits in with global imperatives, such as democracy, good governance and counter-terrorism, and it is constantly faced with the challenge of balancing peace and security with developmental concerns.
Shortfalls in capacity constitute a major source of concern, with the SADC Secretariat unable to deliver against its ambitious mandate. According to the director of a leading SADC think tank, in 2005 SADC’s Gaborone Secretariat included 2 full-time staff members working on implementing SIPO, as compared to 40 full-time staff working on security issues in SADC’s West African counterpart, ECOWAS. While additional experts have been recruited since then, this calls into question SADC’s preparedness to address security issues with the seriousness they deserve. In the Situation Room, for example, and although staff have been seconded from South Africa and Namibia, there remains a shortfall in qualified analysts and other experts.
Collectively, SADC member states are economically stronger than other sub-regions of Africa, and they have pledged to support a long list of SIPO’s activities from their assessed contributions. Individually, however, and in practice, only a few member states are able to provide the funds needed. As a result, external support from donors is pivotal in helping the SADC Secretariat implement its programs. SADC’s key donors include the EU, which supports to SADC’s security agenda through the AU Peace Facility, the UK’s DFID, Japan, and Belgium, among others.
Opportunities
Building SADC’s capacity to implement its peace and security framework constitutes a priority area for potential support from private foundations.
