The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), His Excellency, Mr. Elias Magosi met with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA), Mr Claver Gatete, and the President of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), Dr Sidi Ould Tah, on 05 April 2024 at the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana. The objective of the meeting was to exchange ideas on issues of mutual interest and to explore and discuss concrete opportunities and financing options with a focus on agriculture export markets.
UN-ECA is one of the five regional economic commissions established in 1958 by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). There is a regional economic commission each for Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America. The mandate of all the regional economic commissions is to facilitate the socio-economic development of their respective regions. Since 2014, UN-ECA has been supporting the SADC Secretariat in implementing several initiatitives and development priorities geared towards accelerating the socio-economic transformation of the region.
At the meeting the SADC Executive Secretary proposed initiatives that the two partners can pursue in strengthening cooperation such as its broad agenda of inclusive industrialisation, for UN-ECA to continue collaborating with SADC in the implementation of the industrialisation Action Plan, collaborate in supporting SADC Member States to implement various activities geared towards attaining the African Continental Free TradeArea (AfCFTA); collaborate in capacity building initiatives etc.
Additionally, SADC and BADEA signed an MoU on 1 December 2023. The MoU establishes a framework of cooperation in development areas such as industry, transportation, infrastructure, construction, energy, water, health, trade, agriculture, and investment. The MoU further commits both parties to jointly facilitate the holding of forums, seminars, and exhibitions involving key stakeholders, plus the private sector. Upon signing the MoU, both sides resolved to convene a SADC-BADEA Investment Forum which will be held at the margins of the SADC Summit of Heads State and Government in August 2024 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
