4 Main Regional Organizations Zambia Belongs To

A Regional organization is one whose members belong to a certain geographical region.

Regional organizations to which Zambia belongs

1. Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)
2. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
3. New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)
4. African Union (AU)

Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Origin

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was initially formed on 1 April 1980 as the Southern Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) to advance the cause of national political liberation in Southern Africa and to reduce dependence on South Africa during the apartheid era.

On 17 August 1992, after the apartheid era had ended, heads of government of the region agreed to transform SADCC into the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at a summit held in Windhoek, Namibia. The focus was on integration of economic development.

Membership

15 member countries are:

1. Angola 9. Botswana
2. DRC 10. Lesotho
3. Madagascar 11. Malawi
4. Namibia 12. Mozambique
5. South Africa 13. Seychelles
6. Tanzania 14. Swaziland
8. Zimbabwe.

Structure of SADC

1. Summit of Heads State or Government.

• it’s the highest level of authority
• It makes the policies of SADC and consists of all SADC Heads of states or Government.
• It usually meets once a year. At this meeting a new Chairperson and Deputy are elected.

2. Council of Ministers:

• It’s the second highest level of authority.
• The council is responsible for planning and supervising all activities of SADC.
• It is made up of one Minister from each Member State.

3. Organ on politics, Defence and security Co-operation:

• This organ is responsible for promoting peace and Security in the SADC region.
• The leader of the organ is always a Head of State or Government. A new Chairperson of the organ is elected each year.

4. The Secretariat:

• The Secretariat plans and manages the SADC programmes.
• Its headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana.
• The Secretariat is headed by the Executive Secretary, who is appointed by the Summit for four years.

5. The Tribunal:

• Consists of 10 judges, they make sure that member States understand the SADC Treaty and that they obey its rules.
• It deals with any disputes.
• It’s based in Windhoek, Namibia.

6. The Ministerial Committees:

• The committees consist of Ministers from each SADC Member State.
• These committees make sure that development plans for the region are implemented.

7. The Standing Committee of Senior Officials:

• This Committee advice the Council of Ministers.
• It consists of one official of one official from each Member State, preferably from a Ministry that deals with economic planning or finances.

8. The National Committees:

• The committees help to prepare regional policies and strategies. They also prepare new projects and check that regional strategies and programmes are carried out.
• The committees consist of stakeholders from government, the private sector and civil society in each Member State. They meet four times a year.

Goal of SADC

To improve operation and integration among the Southern African states.

Objectives of SADC

• Achieving development and economic growth in the region.
• Improving the quality of life in member states
• Developing common political values, systems and institutions of member states
• Promoting and defending peace and security
• Strengthening the historical, social and cultural links among the people of the region.
• Using natural resources sustainably and to protect the environment
• Promoting the economic independence of the member states
• Promoting employment and the effective use of resources of the region.

How Zambia benefits from membership to SADC

By being a member of SADC, Zambia is helped to:

1. Achieve development and economic growth
2. Alleviate poverty
3. Enhancing the standard and quality of life of the socially disadvantaged people through regional integration
4. Promote and defend peace and security
5. Using the natural resources sustainably and to protect the environment
6. Promoting the economic independence of the member states

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)

• COMESA was formed in December 1994 to replace the former Preferential Trade Area (PTA) which had existed from the early 1980’s.
• It is the largest regional economic organization in Africa with 19 member states: Burundi, Comoros, DRC, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• COMESA was established was established “as an organization of free, independent states which have agreed to cooperate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people”.
• COMESA Centre is located in Lusaka. It is home to the Secretary General’s Office and most of the more than 150 staff members many of the organization’s functions are carried out from the COMESA Centre.

Structure of COMESA

1. The Authority is made up of heads of States and Governments
• The authority sets the policies and makes sure that COMESA achieves its objectives

2. The Council of Ministers

• It is the second highest organ. It is made up of Ministers of the member states.
• It makes sure that COMESA functions properly
• It also makes decisions on the programmes and activities of COMESA.

3. The Inter-government Committee

• It is made up of Permanent .Secretaries from the Member States.
• The committee develops programmes and action plans and makes sure that the Common Market functions properly

4. The Committee for the Heads of Central Banks

• It makes financial and budgetary decisions

5. The COMESA Court of Justice

• It is the legal or judicial organ of COMESA. It makes decisions on any disputes that there may be among the Member States
• It is headed by a President and has six additional judges appointed by the Authority.

6.12 Technical Committees

• The Committees cover different areas such as agriculture, legal affairs, tourism and wildlife, trade and monetary affairs etc.
• The Technical Committees prepare programmes and make sure they are carried out properly

Priorities and objectives of COMESA

• Establishing a Customs Union
• Formation of a large economic and trading unit
• Formation of a free trade area

The custom is meant to merge or join a number of customs territories into a single customs territory where custom duties and other measures that restrict trade are removed between the merged territories.
A free trade area a trade group whose member countries charge little or no tariffs or price control on goods traded between these countries. They create a trade policy that all countries in the free trade area agree to.

Note: Advantages of a free trade area

• Consumers have access to cheaper and/or better quality foreign goods
• Prices decrease because governments reduce or remove tariffs
• It increases the profitability of each country because it allows agreeing nations to focus on producing goods they are best at making

Functions of COMESA

COMESA focuses on formation of a large economic and trading unit by:

• Attaining sustainable growth and development of member countries.
• Promoting joint development in all fields of economic activity
• Creating a sustainable environment for domestic and foreign investment
• Encourage close relations between member countries
• Working together to strength the relations between COMESA and the rest of the world
• Maintaining peace and security between member Countries so that economic development ties in the region are strengthened

New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)

• (NEPAD) is an economic development programme developed by the African Union (AU)
• It was formed at the 37th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia.
• It aims to provide a frame work for speeding up economic cooperation and integration among African countries.

The founding member states were Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.

The eight priority areas of NEPAD are:

– Political – economic corporate governance
– Agriculture – infrastructure
– Education – health
– Science and technology – market access and tourism
Environment

Structure of NEPAD

Assembly of Africa Union
↓
Heads of state and government implementation committee
↓
Steering committee
↓
Secretariat
↓
National NEPAD Structures
↓
NEPAD council

Heads of State and Government implementation Committee

• It provide leadership to NEPAD: It sets policies and programmes of action
• It is mandated to develop a strategic plan for marketing and communications at the national, regional, continental and international level
• It report annually to the African Union Summit

Steering committee

• The committee is made up of 20 AU. It is tasked with the development of the terms of reference for identified programmes and projects.

Secretariat

• It is located in South Africa.
• It coordinates the administrative and logistical function for NEPAD
• Many individual African states have also established National NEPAD structures responsible for coordinating initiatives on economic reform and development programmes.

NEPAD council

• The NEPAD council is a non-political and non-profit organization (NGO) founded by the young African professional and scholars to support NEPAD to achieve its mission.
• The council’s mission is to initiate global action and mobilize resources and that will help NEPAD to meet its objectives.

NEPAD’S primary objectives are:

1. Eradicate poverty
2. Promoting sustainable growth and development
3. Accelerating the empowerment of women
4. Fully integrating Africa into the global economy

African Union

• The African Union was formerly known as the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
• (OAU) was formed on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to promote continental peace, unity and cooperation. It was formed when most of Africa was under colonial rule, in order to get rid of all forms of colonialism and white minority rule.

• Zambia became a member of AU on 16 December 1964.
• On 19 July 2002 (OAU) formerly became the African Union (AU), when OAU goal of independence of African countries was achieved. This was after the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994.
• 52 republics and two Kingdoms make up the members of the African Union.

Morocco had withdrawn its membership of AU in 1984 following the OAU’s acceptance of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a member state. However, It officially rejoined the AU on 31 January 2017