Southern African Development Co-ordinating Conference (SADCC)

The Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference, SADCC, the forerunner of the SADC, the Community, was established in April 1980 by Governments of the nine Southern African countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The formation of SADC was the culmination of a long process of consultations by the leaders of Southern Africa. Towards the end of the 1970's, it became clear to the leaders of the region that just having a national flag and a national anthem would not meet the needs of the people for improved living standards.

Secondly, the positive experiences gained in working together in the group of Frontline States, to advance the political struggle, had to be translated into broader co-operation in pursuit of economic and social development.

From 1977, active consultations were undertaken by representatives of the Frontline States, culminating in a meeting of Foreign Ministries of the Frontline States in Gaborone, in May 1979, which called for a meeting of ministers responsible for economic development.

That meeting was subsequently convened in Arusha, Tanzania, in July 1979. The Arusha meeting led to the birth to the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference a year later.

The SADCC or the conference, was formed with four principal objectives, namely:

• to reduce Member States dependence, particularly, but not only, on apartheid South Africa
• to implement programmes and projects with national and regional impact;
• to mobilise Member States' resources, in the quest for collective self-reliance; and
• to secure international understanding and support.

These objectives were pursued with determination and vigour. Through SADCC, the founding fathers sought first to demonstrate the tangible benefits of working together, and to cultivate a climate of confidence and trust among member States.

SADC has developed since then, to become a organisation that has a Programme of Action, covering several broad economic and social sectors, namely, Energy, Tourism, Environment and Land Management, Water, Mining, Employment and Labour, Culture, Information and Sport and Transport and Communications.

Other sectors are Finance and Investment, Human Resource Development, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Legal Affairs and Health. Sectors are each co-ordinated by a Member State with some member states co-ordinating more than one sector.

30. International Organizations. Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (GOs and NGOs)

An international organization is an organization with an international membership, scope, or presence. There are two main types:^[1]

· International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs): non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that operate internationally. There are two types:

· International non-profit organizations. Examples include the World Organization of the Scout Movement, International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.

· International corporations, referred to as multinational corporations. Examples include The Coca-Cola Company and Toyota.

· Intergovernmental organizations, also known as international governmental organizations (IGOs): the type of organization most closely associated with the term 'international organization', these are organizations that are made up primarily of sovereign states (referred to as member states). Notable examples include the United Nations (UN), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Council of Europe (CoE), European Union (EU; which is a prime example of a supranational organization), and World Trade Organization (WTO). The UN has used the term "intergovernmental organization" instead of "international organization" for clarity.^[2]

The first and oldest intergovernmental organization is the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 801