The Ambassador of Angola to Botswana and SADC Her Excellency Dr. Beatriz Antónia Manuel De Morais paid a courtesy call on the Executive Secretary of SADC, His Excellency Mr Elias Magosi on 12 October 2023, and reiterated her country’s commitment to support implementation of SADC’s regional integration programmes.
Ambassador Morais restated the Republic of Angola’s readiness to work with the SADC Secretariat in implementing the 43rd SADC Summit theme, titled “Human and Financial Capital: The Key Drivers for Sustainable Industrialisation in the SADC Region’’ and to support with the implementation of decisions of SADC.
In his acceptance speech when assumed the Chair of SADC on 17th August 2023, His Excellency Mr. João Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola highlighted that “the Republic of Angola will seek to develop a Chairmanship that meets the expectations of the citizens of our Community and helps to add another pillar to the organisation's socio-economic and political development project, with a view to the future realisation of SADC's Vision 2050, which envisages a region with political and social stability, peace and economic development, justice and freedom for its citizens.”
The 43rd SADC Summit theme, which was proposed by the Republic of Angola seeks to address two of the most critical enablers in supporting regional industrialisation, namely adequate human resources in terms of numbers and technical capacity within the context of climate change and 4th Industrial Revolution, and adequate financial resources to ensure more sustainable funding mechanisms.
Ambassador Morais expressed the Republic of Angola’s willingness to ratify all SADC protocols that Angola has signed and added that during their tenure, Angola was going to work with the secretariat to fast-track ratification and approve the operationalisation of the SADC Regional Development Fund (RDF).
SADC Executive Secretary commended the Republic of Angola for the continued commitment to SADC’s regional programmes and welcomed the support and dedication to motivate Member States to ratify and approve the operationalisation of the SADC RDF.
He highlighted that the fund, which was mooted nearly a decade ago, is an important tool for raising financial resources necessary for the implementation of prioritised SADC programmes and the fulfilment of the SADC integration agenda.
So far nine member states have signed the agreement to operationalise the SADC RDF and only one of the nine has deposited instruments of ratification with the SADC Secretariat.
