| Conventional Long Name: | Southern African Development Community |
| Linking Name: | the Southern African Development Community |
| Image Symbol: | Seal of the SADC.svg |
| Symbol Width: | 95px |
| Motto: | "Towards a Common Future" |
| Anthem: | "SADC Anthem" |
| Map Width: | 265px |
| Org Type: | Intergovernmental |
| Membership Type: | Membership |
| Admin Center Type: | Headquarters |
| Admin Center: | Gaborone |
| Largest City: | Kinshasa |
| Languages Type: | Working languages |
| Leader Title1: | Summit Chairperson |
| Leader Name1: |  Emmerson Mnangagwa |
| Leader Title2: | Council Chairperson |
| Leader Name2: | Frederick Shava |
| Leader Title3: | SADC PF Chairperson |
| Leader Name3: |  Roger Mancienne |
| Leader Title4: | SADC Tribunal President |
| Leader Name4: | Disbanded |
| Leader Title5: | Executive Secretary |
| Leader Name5: |  Elias Mpedi Magosi |
| Legislature: | SADC Parliamentary Forum |
| Established Event1: | as SADCC |
| Established Date1: | 1 April 1980 |
| Established Event2: | as SADC |
| Established Date2: | 17 August 1992 |
| Area Km2: | 9672702[1] |
| Area Sq Mi: | 3734651 |
| Area Label: | Total |
| Population Estimate: | 363,222,621[2] |
| Population Estimate Year: | 2020 |
| Gdp Nominal: | $597.8 billion[3] |
| Gdp Nominal Year: | 2020 |
| Gdp Nominal Per Capita: | $1,649 |
| Utc Offset: | +1 to +4 |
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana.
The SADC's goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security cooperation among 16 countries in southern Africa.[4] Although its primary objectives are development, economic growth, and poverty alleviation, peacekeeping has become increasingly important to the SADC.[5]
As of 2022, the SADC has a total of 16 member states:[6]
| Area (km2) | Population (2020)[7] | GDP (USD) | Notes on Membership | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total (billions)[8] | Per Capita | |||||
| 1,246,700 | 32,866,268 | $124.86 | $3,792.75 | |||
| 582,000 | 2,351,625 | $18.42 | $7,519.2 | |||
| [9] [10] | 2,235 | 869,595 | $1.31 | $1,371.02 | The Union of Comoros was admitted into SADC at the 37th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Pretoria, South Africa in 2017, bringing the total number of Member States to 16.[11] | |
| 2,344,858 | 89,561,404 | $64.79 | $669.36 | Since 8 September 1997 | ||
| 17,363 | 1,160,164 | $4.65 | $4,035.54 | |||
| 30,355 | 2,142,252 | $2.56 | $1,212.57 | |||
| 587,295 | 27,691,019 | $14.61 | $504.31 | Admitted on 18 August 2005. Membership reinstated on 30 January 2014[12] after an imposed suspension in 2009 | ||
| 118,484 | 19,129,955 | $12.04 | $545.06 | |||
| 1,969 | 1,265,740 | $11.26 | $8,892.11 | Since 28 August 1995 | ||
| 801,590 | 31,255,435 | $18.09 | $546.71 | |||
| 824,268 | 2,540,916 | $13.01 | $5,016.17 | Since 21 March 1990 (since independence) | ||
| 456 | 98,462 | $1.75 | $17,693.00 | Also previously a member of SADC from 8 September 1997 until 1 July 2004 then joined again in 2008. | ||
| 1,221,037 | 59,308,690 | $426.17 | $6,979.44 | Since 30 August 1994 | ||
| 947,303 | 59,734,213 | $77.51 | $1,260.06 | |||
| 752,612 | 18,383,956 | $26.66 | $1,330.37 | |||
| 390,757 | 14,862,927 | $36.38 | $2,300.56 | |||
Burundi has requested to join.[13]
The origins of SADC are in the 1960s and 1970s, when the leaders of majority-ruled countries and national liberation movements coordinated their political, diplomatic and military struggles to bring an end to colonial and white-minority rule in southern Africa. The immediate forerunner of the political and security cooperation leg of today's SADC was the informal Frontline States (FLS) grouping. It was formed in 1980.
The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was the forerunner of the socio-economic cooperation leg of today's SADC. The adoption by nine majority-ruled southern African countries of the Lusaka declaration on 1 April 1980 paved the way for the formal establishment of SADCC in April 1980.
Membership of the FLS and SADCC sometimes differed.
SADCC was transformed into SADC on 17 August 1992, with the adoption by the founding members of SADCC and newly independent Namibia of the Windhoek declaration and treaty establishing SADC. The 1992 SADC provided for both socio-economic cooperation and political and security cooperation. In reality, the FLS was dissolved only in 1994, after South Africa's first democratic elections. Subsequent efforts to place political and security cooperation on a firm institutional footing under SADC's umbrella failed.
On 14 August 2001, the 1992 SADC treaty was amended. The amendment heralded the overhaul of the structures, policies and procedures of SADC, a process which is ongoing. One of the changes is that political and security cooperation is institutionalised in the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (OPDS); one of the principal SADC bodies. It is subject to the oversight of the organisation's supreme body, the Summit, which comprises the heads of state or government.
The organisation holds its own multi-sport event in the form of the SADC Games, which was first held in 2004 in Maputo. Originally planned for an earlier date in Malawi and Lesotho, organisational issues led to abandonment of the plan and the SADC issuing a fine of $100,000 against Malawi.[14] The first event in 2004 in Maputo resulted in over 1000 youths under-20 from 10 countries taking part in a sports programme including athletics, football, netball, boxing and basketball.[15]
In 2012, the SADC deployed peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to counter a rebel threat. The deployed troops were supplied by Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa.
In August 2019 SADC adopted Swahili as its fourth working language, alongside English, French and Portuguese.[16] Kiswahili – a lingua franca in the African Great Lakes region, other parts of East Africa, and to a lesser degree, parts of Southern Africa – is an official language of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and of the African Union.[17]
SADC has 27 legally binding protocols dealing with issues such as Defence, Development, Illicit Drug Trade, Free Trade and Movement of People.[18]
The SADC Free Trade Area was established in August 2008, after the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade in 2000 laid the foundation for its formation.[22] [23] Its original members were Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe,[24] with Malawi and Seychelles joining later. Of the 15 SADC member states, only Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are not yet participating, however Angolan trade minister Joffre Van-Dúnen Júnior said in Luanda that his ministry is working to create conditions for Angola's accession to the SADC Free Trade Area in 2019.[25] [26] The SADC-Customs Union, scheduled to be established by 2010 according to SADC's Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), is unlikely to become reality in the near future. This is because the European Union's Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with their inherent extra-regional freetrade regimes provided for several SADC members more benefits than deeper regional market integration within the framework of a SADC-Customs Union. Since these SADC countries formed four different groupings to negotiate and implement different Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union, the chance to establish a SADC-wide common external tariff as prerequisite for a regional customs union is missed.[27]
On Wednesday 22 October 2008, SADC joined with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the East African Community to form the African Free Trade Zone, including all members of each of the organizations. The leaders of the three trading blocs agreed to create a single free trade zone, the African Free Trade Zone, consisting of 26 countries with a GDP of an estimated $624bn (£382.9bn). It is hoped the African Free Trade Zone agreement would ease access to markets within the zone and end problems arising from the fact that several of the member countries belong to multiple groups.[28]
The African Free Trade Zone effective has been more than a hundred years in the making—a trade zone spanning the whole African continent from Cape to Cairo and envisioned by Cecil Rhodes and other British imperialists in the 1890s. The only difference is that the African Free Trade Zone is the creation of independent African Countries. The idea is a free trade zone spanning the whole continent from the Cape to Cairo (Cape Town in the Republic of South Africa to Cairo in Egypt).
In addition to eliminating duplicative membership and the problem member states also participating in other regional economic cooperation schemes and regional political and security cooperation schemes that may compete with or undermine each other, the African Free Trade Zone further aims to strengthen the bloc's bargaining power when negotiating international deals.
Pursuant to the SADC goal of more integration, Botswana and Namibia signed an agreement in February 2023 allowing citizens to travel between the two countries using only identity cards, with passports no longer being needed.[29] Botswana has held talks with Zimbabwe to achieve a similar deal, and expects to open talks with Zambia.[30]
SADC countries face many social, development, economic, trade, education, health, diplomatic, defence, security and political challenges. Some of these challenges cannot be tackled effectively by individual members. Cattle diseases and organised-crime gangs know no boundaries. War in one country can suck in its neighbours and damage their economies. The sustainable development that trade could bring is threatened by the existence of different product standards and tariff regimes, weak customs infrastructure and bad roads. The socio-economic and political and security cooperation aims of SADC are equally wide-ranging, and intended to address the various common challenges.[31]
One significant challenge is that member states also participate in other regional economic cooperation schemes and regional political and security cooperation schemes that may compete with or undermine SADC's aims. For example, South Africa and Botswana both belong to the Southern Africa Customs Union, Zambia is a part of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and Tanzania is a member of the East African Community.
According to Human Rights Watch, "SADC has been criticized for its laxity on making human rights compliance within its member states a priority".[32]
The organization has six principal bodies:
Except for the Tribunal (based in Windhoek, Namibia), SNCs and Secretariat, decision-making is by consensus.
| Country | Chairperson | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007–2008 | |||
| 2008–2009 | |||
| 2009–2010 | |||
| 2010–2011 | |||
| 2011–2012 | |||
| 2012–2013 | |||
| 2013–31 May 2014 31 May–17 August 2014 | |||
| 2014–17 August 2015 | |||
| 17 August 2015 – 2016 | |||
| King Mswati III | 2016–2017 | ||
| 2017–2018 | |||
| 17 August 2018 – 17 August 2019 | |||
| John Magufuli[33] | 17 August 2019 – 17 August 2020 | ||
| 17 August 2020 – 17 August 2021 | |||
| 17 August 2021 – 17 August 2022 | |||
| 17 August 2022 – 17 August 2023 | |||
| João Lourenço[34] | 17 August 2023 – 17 August 2024 | ||
| Emmerson Mnangagwa[35] | 17 August 2024 – present |
| Country | Name | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994–2000 | |||
| 2000–2001 2001–2005 | |||
| 2005–2013 | |||
| 2013–2021 | |||
| 2021–present |