Moyiga Nduru

MASERU, Aug 16 2006 (IPS) – A call has been made for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to involve civil society in its decision-making process in deed, as well as in word. This comes ahead of the annual SADC summit for heads of state and government that gets underway Thursday in Lesotho s capital, Maseru.
The constitution of the 14-member grouping provides for the inclusion of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the process.

But, In practice, they don t consult us, said Abie Ditlhake, secretary general of the SADC Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (SADC-CNGO). We don t have direct input into this summit. This is already a problem.

SADC-CNGO operates out of Botswana s capital, Gaborone, where the SADC secretariat is also based.

The question to be asked is whether the host of problems confronting SADC is likely to crowd these concerns of the summit agenda.

While the region recorded an overall five percent growth in real GDP (gross domestic product) in 2005 which is projected to grow to six percent in 2006, the region still needs to work hard as it remains below the seven percent set target for the developing nations to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Timothy Thahane, Lesotho s finance minister and chairman of the SADC Council of Ministers, told journalists in Maseru on Wednesday.
The Council of Ministers is a body that meets twice a year in February and August respectively to approve SADC s budget, and prepare for the annual summit.

Thahane said foreign investment holds the key to improved growth: Sub-Saharan Africa attracts between one and two percent of global foreign direct investment. If you take away Nigeria, South Africa and Angola, you are left with less than 0.5 percent of foreign direct investment to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

The minister struck a more positive note on the matter of food production, pointing to improvements in certain states.

This is attributed to improved access to inputs by farmers and also increased rainfall during the 2005/2006 season, he observed.

Despite the 11 percent overall decrease in maize production from 20.01 million tones in 2005 to 17.76 million tones in 2006, at least four SADC member states (Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia) have reported surpluses, while four others (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Tanzania) have recorded increased production.

Still, a number of countries in the region continue to grapple with food security.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it needs almost 86 million dollars to assist about three million people in Southern Africa, until December.

At times over the last five years, WFP food has reached up to 13 million people suffering from widespread food shortages caused by erratic weather, poor government policies, economic stagnation and shortages of seeds and fertilizers, the agency noted in a Jun. 28 press release, which also highlighted the role of AIDS in undermining regional food security.

The pandemic is keeping people out of the fields, resulting in lower production, and deepening poverty and hunger while the premature death of adults also prevents important agricultural skills from being passed on to the next generation.

The WFP s Jun press release further quotes Executive Director James Morris as saying that as long as HIV/AIDS remains at such epic proportions throughout Southern Africa, a large number of people will face severe hardship unless international assistance is provided. Good harvests do not necessarily mean people have enough to eat.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Southern Africa is the epicentre of the pandemic: in a fact sheet issued May 25, the agency notes that almost a third of all HIV-positive persons live in this region. The Southern African nation of Swaziland has the world s highest HIV prevalence on average, 33.4 percent.

Nonetheless, SADC will have to find a way around these obstacles, says Tomaz Salomao, the new executive secretary of the community.

For us, as a region, we can t continue to beg for food. We have water, land and people. It s a matter of pride to grow our food, he told reporters in Maseru.

Other matters to be discussed at the two-day summit include how best to attain the various goals SADC has set itself for economic integration, such as the creation of a free trade area by 2008, and a single currency by 2018. At present, the region is home both to a country that is expected to achieve double-digit growth this year as a result of oil revenues (Angola) and one where triple-digit inflation has become the order of the day (Zimbabwe).

The deadlines for integration are viewed with skepticism by Ted Nandolo, chairman of the Lilongwe-based Malawi NGO Council; This is an unrealistic timetable, he told IPS, adding that attention needed to be given to strengthening the SADC secretariat.

The SADC secretariat doesn t have power to enforce agreements. It s not like the EU (European Union), which has power to enforce decisions. We want the heads of states to look at this issue seriously, Nandolo said.

Nowadays you find that a unit within the SADC is staffed with only an individual. This is not good.

Some have voiced concern that SADC s 46-million-dollar budget for 2006/2007 is insufficient for the needs of the organisation which serves a population of 230 million.