Over 100 regional representatives from all relevant stakeholders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) gathered in Maputo, Mozambique, on 11th August, to attend the first ‘Think Tank Conference on Regional Integration’.
The meeting offered them a unique opportunity to engage in dialogue and to share ideas of how to accelerate regional integration. The Think Tank Conference was the first regional multi-stakeholder conference to be arranged as part of the ‘SADC Policy Analysis and Dialogue Programme’. The meeting was jointly organised by the SADC Secretariat, the Centro de Estudos Estratégicos e Internacionais (CEEI) of Mozambique and GIZ.
Its main purpose was to start a regional multi-stakeholder dialogue between policy makers, researchers and relevant stakeholders. Participants therefore comprised of members of senior management from SADC Secretariat, senior researchers from 12 Member States, representatives of civil society organisations, business representatives as well as senior government representatives from Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
This high-level event took place just before the SADC Council of Ministers Meeting and the subsequent Summit of Head of States and Governments, offering a unique platform for dialogue around the fostering of SADC’s policy development processes. The Mozambique Minister of Trade and Industry, Honourable Armando Inroga, stated in his opening remarks that the overarching goal of SADC was to advance democracy, development, and integration for the benefit of the people of southern Africa and welcomed the idea of involving all stakeholders in the policy dialogue.
