27 May 2018

Among many of the successes of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in sustaining peace and stability in the region is the establishment of the Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation in 2001, says the director of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs, Mr Jorge Cardoso.

Delivering a keynote address at a two-day policy dialogue and peace-building conference in Gaborone recently, Mr Cardoso said the organ was a mechanism to coordinate policy and interventions to address challenges of peace and security in southern Africa. He was speaking on behalf of SADC executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Tax.

“Under this protocol, critical peace and security structures of our member states have a platform to regularly engage directly on key issues of concern with respect to five sectoral dimensions of security, politics and diplomacy, state security, public security, defence and policing, which coordinate inter-related security concerns that impact negatively on our economic development,” Mr Cardoso said.

Mr Cardoso also said based on the experience of its varied conflict situations in some of its member states, SADC felt the need to develop more intervention mechanisms under the organ to prevent or respond to grave situations.

Such mechanisms included mediation, conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy structures to timeously prevent violent conflicts and the regional early warning centre to detect and monitor threats to regional security, among others.

Mr Cardoso highlighted that while SADC continued to enjoy peace and stability, the region also faced a few regional challenges which came at a high cost.

He made recommendations for the region to continue devising innovative means of resource mobilisation and of harnessing its strategic assets, in addition to leveraging extra capacities from non-state actors to be able to prevent, mitigate or resolve conflicts.

The conference was organised by the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI) which has collaborated with the University of Botswana in its effort of building networks with research-based and policy institutions in Southern Africa.

The policy dialogue came out of the need to scale up policy engagement on the role of regional economic communities on peace building in Africa, which saw SADC partnering with the two institutions.

The conference brought together representatives from several institutions, policy makers, scholars and practitioners to share perspectives on how to effectively deal with peace-building in the SADC region, as well as to discuss challenges and opportunities for RECs and peace-building in Southern Africa.

Meanwhile, the Ambassador of Sweden to Botswana, Ms Cecilia Julin said the world was facing a lot of challenges, with the SADC region included, and as such more cooperation and partnerships were needed to meet the challenges.

She said it has become part of the Nordic countries’ ambition to be engaged in different partnerships with SADC countries to promote regional peace and security through the regional corporations.

Ms Julin further added that “regional corporations is a good thing, as it benefits everyone involved and always brings stability to the region in question.”

The Nordic Africa Institute is a knowledge centre that conducts research, offers policy advice and provides information about contemporary Africa with special focus on social sciences. It is jointly financed by Finland, Iceland and Sweden governments.

Established in 1962, the institution is based on in-house research and long-established international partnerships, engaging in discussions and giving advice on the most significant developments in Africa. ENDS