SADC changes will bring efficiency

A new managerial structure adopted at the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) extraordinary summit in Windhoek last week would go a long way towards furthering regional coordination and cooperation, experts told IRIN on Tuesday. The region's leaders decided at the one-day summit last Friday to merge the SADC's 19 sectors, which are run by individual member-states, into four clusters: trade, industry, finance and investment; infrastructure and services; food, agriculture and natural resources; and social and human development. There is also room for co-ordination on issues like disaster management and drug trafficking through the creation of special projects. Another important decision taken was to make the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security accountable to the Summit and to rotate its leadership annually, using a troika system. Horst Brammer, a deputy director in South Africa's Foreign Affairs Department, said it was hoped that the new structure would bring greater focus to the SADC and the manner in which it approached project implementation. "Until now there has been a sectoral approach, a great deal of decentralisation among countries with differing degrees of capacity. Depending on the capacity of a country driving a particular sector, some were operating and others were not operating at all. Now, instead of a country running one sector, experts from across the region will be used," he said. "What will happen now is that the subject matter each sector was responsible for - instead of a sector on water and another on forestry - will be clustered into four broad directorates, so you will have a directorate on finance, development and investment," he added. It is envisaged that the SADC will boost its secretariat in Botswana to facilitate greater efficiency and to ensure that the clusters work cohesively. According to Brammer the changes could transform the SADC into a leaner and meaner body. "The new system will be less cumbersome. It will be cheaper, and at the same time there will be a higher level of efficiency because you are pooling expertise," he said. Jakkie Cilliers, director of the Institute for Security Studies, based in South Africa, agreed. Referring to the Organ on Defence, Politics and Security which was created in 1996, he said the perception created that the change was a defeat for Mugabe was incorrect. "It has been in the pipeline, and it is a rotating chair. Off course he has tried to stay on, but final agreement on its structure was agreed in Swaziland last year. Zimbabwe always wanted it separate from the SADC, Namibia and Angola wanted this too. He (Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has been chair of the organ since 1996) wanted to continue in the legacy of the frontline states, so that Zimbabwe would almost be the permanent chair of the organ," said Cilliers. "Nelson Mandela disagreed with this and there have been various attempts by Swaziland, Mozambique and Malawi to mediate. Then, South Africa, under President Thabo Mbeki, launched a process to bridge the divide. A protocol was negotiated and it was agreed at ministerial meetings in Swaziland that the organ's leadership would rotate," Cilliers added. He said the fact that it took five years to find agreement on the issue indicated that the region remained divided, with members of the SADC being suspicious of each other, and with differing approaches to issues like conflict resolution and regional collaboration. "The region has a long road ahead in terms of building a collaborative security regime, where countries cooperate and don't compete. Lots of work still needs to be done, like the creation of confidence-building mechanisms. What we are trying to do is establish a region that is stable and cooperative," he said.