FOREWORD BY SADC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY 1

INTRODUCTION 3

TRADE 4

DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS 6

FINANCE 8

ELECTRICITY 10

PEACE & SECURITY 12

TOURISM 14

BIODIVERSITY 16

WATER 18

DISASTER MANAGEMENT 21

CONTENTS

FOREWORDTHE SADC Success Stories initiative is intended to increase the publicvisibility of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) andto showcase some of the achievements and benefits of regional integra-tion in the belief that SADC is not sufficiently well understood in termsof its mandate, programmes, activities and impact.

Regional success stories and positive results are documented in thispublication in a well-informed and accessible manner to demonstratethe benefits of regional integration to SADC citizens, contribute to thespirit of a common future, and generate interest in SADC and its po-tential.

This year marks 35 years of SADC progress, including its growth from nine to 15 MemberStates in mainland Southern Africa and the islands. At its formation as the Southern AfricaDevelopment Coordination Conference (SADCC) in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 1980, the leadersof the region sought to demonstrate their vision of unity through the tangible benefits of work-ing together. SADC has come a long way since its transformation into a regional developmentcommunity in 1992.

From this solid foundation, the region has transformed into a cohesive Community,which is determined to deliver a better standard of living for the people of the region. Thereform of the SADC structure and its institutional framework since 1992 has shown thestrong commitment by Member States to consolidate regional economic and political inte-gration, while accelerating the process towards an integrated region as part of a continentalAfrican Economic Community.

In pursuit of the regional integration agenda, SADC Member States have since 1992 signed27 protocols and a number of declarations, charters and memoranda of understanding on var-ious matters, ranging from trade, mining and finance and investment to illicit drugs, forestryand shared watercourses, as well as the empowerment of women and young people.

Out of the 27 protocols, 24 have come into force so far after being ratified by two-thirdsof the signatory Member States.

Although there is still a long way to go, we believe that these and other initiatives haveimproved the lives of SADC citizens.

For example, the One-Stop-Border Post initiative has proved a viable development ineliminating trade barriers through reduction of clearance time and cost, with benefits ex-tending to consumers further afield. Similarly, development corridors have helped boostindustrial growth, especially in landlocked countries, by providing cheaper alternativetransport routes to seaports.

Equally, the establishment of river basin commissions has made it easier for joint man-agement and utilization of transboundary water resources.

The purpose of this publication is to highlight these SADC achievements, with a focuson how regional integration has benefitted citizens, thus promoting greater awareness andparticipation by the people of the region and their institutions in the process of regionalintegration.

I would like to warmly thank the Southern African Research and Documentation Centreand their partners for working hard to produce this publication, and the Federal Republicof Germany for supporting this important initiative through the Deutsche Gesellschaft fürInternationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Dr Stergomena Lawrence TaxSADC Executive Secretary July 2015 1

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SADC VisionThe vision of SADC is one of a Common Future, a future within

a regional community that will ensure economic wellbeing,improvement of the standards of living and quality of life,freedom and social justice, and peace and security for the

people of Southern Africa.

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INTRODUCTION

THIS YEAR marks 35 years of SADC’s existence and a lot of achievements andsuccesses have been recorded along the way in the region’s endeavour to improvethe quality of life of its population of more than a quarter of a billion people. Yetthe regional community and the results of its integration efforts are not wellknown in the region.

The citizens of the region are broadly unaware of the opportunities for socio-economic improvement through regional integration. The lack of informationabout some of the most basic SADC initiatives hampers the development of re-gional programmes and diminishes the sense of belonging to a regional commu-nity by SADC citizens.

To begin to address this gap, some notable practical achievements have beendocumented. The achievements are tracked from the development of regional pol-icy through the implementation at national level to the impact on people in theircommunities, in sectors such as electricity, trade, transport, finance, tourism, bio-diversity, disaster management, water resources, and peacekeeping training forcivilians and military.

To give the stories a human face, field visits were undertaken to Member States todocument testimonies from the local communities. In order to offer a holistic per-spective, the success stories are presented in a multi-layered format, including:

• policy analysis, linking the stories with the relevant SADC protocols to demonstrate and explain aspects of regional integration;

• implementation, as demonstrated by the evidence gathered at the nationalor regional level highlighting the effects of the policies; and

• community impact, as demonstrated by testimonies from people whose lives have been positively affected by the measures taken.

Interviews were conducted, with pictures and videos to show that the “techni-cal success” of the policy implementation has a “human face”.

This publication covers a broad range of thematic areas, including regional eco-nomic integration, transboundary water resources management, security and po-litical regional integration.

SADC Success Stories was produced through the collaborative efforts of theSADC Secretariat Public Relations Unit, the Regional Economic Development In-stitute (REDI) of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre(SARDC) as a long-time SADC partner, and Frayintermedia. The writers, editorsand designers worked exceptionally hard to ensure an informative, high-qualitypublication.

The Success Stories initiative is supported by ProGRESS (Strengthening the Re-form Agenda and Management Structures of SADC Institutions), a partnershipprogramme between SADC and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ). The German contribution to the programmeis implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit(GIZ) GmbH.

SARDC

IF ZIMBABWEAN truck driver God-frey Magaba had a choice, he would

use only the Chirundu border post be-tween Zambia and Zimbabwe to ferrygoods across the region.

“The service at Chirundu has greatlyimproved,” he says.

This is in contrast with other bordercrossings across the region where cus-toms and immigration procedures maytake several hours or even days to becompleted.

The massive reduction in time neededto clear customs at Chirundu is due tothe successful launch of the One-StopBorder-Post initiative in November 2009.

This was in line with the SADC Pro-tocol on Trade ratified in 2000. The Pro-tocol advocates for the elimination ofbarriers to trade as well as the easing ofcustoms and transit procedures.

Under this scheme, immigration andcustoms procedures are carried out justonce in each direction, in contrast to thesituation at most border posts in the re-gion where paperwork must be com-pleted on both sides.

Magaba says the simplified passageat Chirundu has saved his companyhuge sums since he no longer spendslong periods waiting to cross.

In the past, it took commercial trucksbetween four and six days to cross theChirundu border. The typical charge fora stationary truck at the truck stops atthe border is about US$300 a day, mean-ing Magaba’s company had to spend upto US$1,800 to cross the Chirundu bor-der. These costs were passed on to theend-user, making goods more expensivefor consumers in the region.

Since the introduction of the one-stopborder initiative at Chirundu, the crossingtime there has been reduced to less than30 hours on average. Vehicles with pre-clearance can even cross on the same day.

Half of SADC’s 12 continental Mem-ber States are landlocked, leavingmajor centres without direct access to asea port.

“Historically, our border posts werecreated not for trade, but for militaryand security reasons and now we needto change that to promote trade and themovement of persons throughout theregion,” says Lovemore Bingandadi,Transport Corridors Advisor at theSADC Secretariat.

According to the Zambian Ministry ofCommerce, traffic at Chirundu has morethan doubled since the One Stop BorderPost (OSBP) was launched in 2009.4

Facilitating trade, reducingtime and costs

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“If the border crossing adopts 24-hour operations, then we can easilyachieve same-day crossing for the ma-jority of commercial freight trucks,”Bingandadi explained.

Sixteen of the 35 most importantborder posts in the region have beenidentified as candidates for conversionto the one-stop system by 2020. (Tableon this page shows the prioritizedprojects.) For now, Chirundu is theonly operational OSBP of its kind inthe region.

However, Bingandadi expects moreto follow quickly, once the most diffi-cult groundwork of putting in placepolicy and legal frameworks are com-pleted.

South Africa is in the process ofadopting a national policy and strat-egy which will allow the Beitbridgeand Lebombo border posts, amongothers, to work towards operating asOSBPs.

At Beitbridge, feasibility studieshave shown that paperwork, currentlyrequiring 24 steps on each side of theborder, could be reduced to just eightonce the OSBP is operational.

The opportunity cost for commercialcompanies is about US$250-500 per daywhen the truck is stationary. More effi-cient border crossings means more effi-cient business as both vehicles and crewscan be more productively utilised.

The reduced time spent at the borderby drivers and goods also reduces thechances of social ills such as corrup-tion, pilferage and increased exposureto risky sexual behaviour.

Equally, accidents from hazardouscargoes being parked for long hours atborder posts are reduced.

And getting business back on theroads quickly helps to drive greaterbusiness growth in the region. w

Name of Border Post Countries Involved

Beitbridge South Africa/ZimbabweChiponde/Mandimba Malawi/MozambiqueKasumbalesa Zambia/DRCKazungula Bridge Botswana/ZambiaMwami/Mchinji Malawi/ZambiaNakonde/Tunduma Zambia/TanzaniaRessano Garcia/Lebombo Mozambique/South AfricaTransKalahari/Mamuno Botswana/NamibiaZobue/Mwanza Mozambique/Malawi

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THE HIGHWAY linking SouthAfrica and Mozambique has made

a world of difference to MozambicanAly Ibrahimo Lalgy’s family business.

“South Africa represents 50 percentof our business,” says the general man-ager of Lalgy Transport, a transportcompany with over 350 trucks servingthe regional market.

“If we didn’t have the Maputo De-velopment Corridor, our incomewould be about 20 percent of what it isnow,” says Lalgy.

It is a world away from when his fa-ther and uncles started their truck busi-ness 30 years ago. Then roads werepoor and narrow.

Now the company’s trucks areamong the steady stream of vehiclesthat make their way along the busystretch of road daily.

In 1996, the Mozambican and SouthAfrican governments signed an agree-ment establishing the Maputo Devel-opment Corridor, which is a networkof roads, railway transport and logis-tics facilities connecting the port of Ma-puto to South Africa and Swaziland.

The corridor provides more than justa trade route – it drives business growth.

It aligns with SADC’s Spatial Devel-opment Initiatives, a strategy to con-nect industries in landlocked countriesto seaports and develop the inherentnatural endowments of the corridor.

The Maputo Development Corridoris one of 18 transport corridors in theregion, explains Lovemore Bingandadi,Transport Corridors Advisor at theSADC Secretariat.

It is the most successful develop-ment corridor in SADC, having at-tracted more than US$5 billion ininvestment since its inception.

This includes US$500 million in-vested in the port of Maputo since 2003;the development of a toll road fromGauteng to Maputo at a cost of aboutUS$400 million and a further US$200million invested in the railway line be-tween Ressano Garcia and Maputo.

Development corridors such as thissupport economic integration, anchorspatial development, help open upmarkets and promote increased tradeand investment.

Maputo DevelopmentCorridor paves the

way for growth

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The Maputo Development Corridorstands out because it was driven byprivate sector frustration at the lack ofinfrastructure.

“A lot of things came together.There were clear mutual benefits to thetwo countries, to the private sector andto the governments,” says Bingandadi.

“The increases in passenger andtraffic flows across the borders are tes-tament of the importance of this strate-gic corridor in regional integration andpromoting sustainable economic de-velopment in the region,” adds Bar-bara Mommen, chief executive officerof the Maputo Corridor Logistics Ini-tiative (MCLI).

MCLI is the only private sector corri-dor management of its kind in Africa.

Mommen notes that this privateand public sector interface is a key fac-tor in successfully addressing con-straints on the Maputo Corridor.

“Without the private sector, the Ma-puto Corridor Concept wouldn’t be sosuccessful,” acknowledges Nuno Ma-posse, Information and MarketingServices Coordinator for the Invest-ment Promotion Centre of Mozam-bique.

“Most of the funds andresources have beensourced from the privatesector based on the confi-dence they had. It’s a verycompetitive business, itmakes sense.”

He says the corridorhas had a major impact onMozambique’s economy.

“We moved from aboutUS$300 million of exports10 to 15 years ago to morethan US$2 billion now,”says Maposse.

He said the success of the corridorhas impacted on activity at the RessanoGarcia/Lebombo border post betweenMozambique and South Africa, whichhas expanded its capacity.

“Now there is around 17 milliontonnes cargo coming in. The road hasalso been upgraded on the Mozambi-can side and traffic has increased dra-matically.”

South African industry has alsotaken advantage: US$2.25 billionworth of South African goods wereexported through Mozambique in2013, the bulk of which travelledthrough the Maputo DevelopmentCorridor.

Future challenges, notes Mommen,include establishing a one-stop borderpost at Ressano Garcia/Lebombo, im-proving railway efficiency and pro-moting increased operationalefficiency and growth.

All of this will contribute to an evensmoother ride for business along thecorridor, which now provides an alter-native access to sea routes for land-locked countries such as Zambia orZimbabwe. w

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Fast, safe andefficient banking

MAURITIAN ENTREPRENEURNissar Dowlut always knew he

wanted to do business with the rest ofAfrica as he was convinced it “was thefuture.” But he worried about the chal-lenges of making and receiving inter-national payments.

Dowlut’s company had a workforceof just three in 2001; today it employsover 100 people at three well-equippedfacilities in the capital, Port Louis,which produce posters for local and ex-port markets in Africa.

SADC’s Integrated Regional Elec-tronic Settlement System (SIRESS) cantake some credit for this expansion.

SIRESS is a SADC electronic paymentsystem developed by Member States tosettle regional transactions among bankswithin the countries.

Where transactions previously tooktwo to three days to clear, now they are

cleared within 24 hours and fees paidto non-SADC clearing banks are saved.

“The main aim is efficiency and re-duction in costs because previously thetransactions would go through a corre-spondent bank. So you are cutting outthe middleman,” says Thembi Langa,Senior Programme Officer in the Fi-nance and Investment Unit at theSADC Secretariat.

Former SADC advisor Dr LufeyoBanda believes that cutting out the in-termediary – often a United States orEuropean correspondent bank – meansmoney stays in the region.

“Banks in the region become veryliquid and the amount of time it takesto access the funds by the beneficiary isreduced,” says Dr Banda, adding thatthe shorter turnaround times will havea positive impact on the region’s econ-omy due to increase in efficiency.

FINANCE

SIRESS will therefore facilitate crossborder transactions that are essentialfor boosting intra-regional tradeamong the SADC Member States.

“We started with a low volume oftransactions in July 2013. Since then,SIRESS has processed nearly 14,000payment transactions,” says AniroodMeeheelau, SADC Finance and Devel-opment Programme Officer.

“We started testing the system infour countries, Lesotho, Namibia,South Africa and Swaziland. We’retesting the system in South AfricanRand,” says Maxine Hlaba, the Execu-tive Secretary at the SADC BankingAssociation.

“We’re now live in nine countries,with Malawi, Mauritius, Tanzania andZimbabwe joining” since the systemwas launched, says Hlaba.

The team is also exploring the addi-tion of the Democratic Republic ofCongo and Madagascar to the coun-tries covered by the system.

“We started with about R10.2 billionin payments in July 2013 and by De-cember 2014 we reached R87.6 bil-lion,” she adds.

“On the morning of 29 April 2015SIRESS achieved a huge milestone byreaching R1 trillion in settlementvalue.”

National banks have a system thatallows business clients to make inter-bank payments in real time; SIRESSprovides a platform to make thesepayments across national borders.

Sixty-three banks, including fivecentral banks, are already on board.Eventually the system will allow evensmall person-to-person paymentswithin shorter timeframes.

SIRESS is housed at the SouthAfrican Reserve Bank .

“This will be a huge benefit to cus-tomers on the ground. If we are tryingto encourage trade among countriesthen this is a plus. Obviously there areother components ... Are your roads

good, are your railways good, are yourports good? But taking that out, therewill always be an exchange of money.

We’ve created a platform for that tohappen. It’s an efficient platform. It’sa safe platform. You get your moneyinstantly,” says Hlaba.

And for entrepreneurs like NissarDowlut, it means more time andmoney to focus on the business ofbusiness. w

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Power co-operation benefitscitizens

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BONGANI NGCOBO grew up inMeadowlands, Soweto, in South

Africa and was already a teenager whenthe suburb received electricity for thefirst time.

“I think we were the last people tohave lights (electricity) in Soweto. Weused to light candles. There are also theselights that use paraffin,” he says.

The availability of electricity has madeall the difference in his life.

Today, the 49-year-old runs a success-ful business, Amafuze Amahle Caterers,which supplies events, including funer-als and weddings, throughout the Dob-sonville area, Soweto, with cooked items. From the biggest companies to the small-est informal business, the electricity sup-ply is vital. Since 1995, the SouthernAfrican Power Pool (SAPP) has givenplanners and managers additional op-tions to meet growing demand.

The SADC Director for Infrastructureand Services, Remigious Makumbe, saysone of the benefits of regional coopera-tion has been the establishment of a

power trading platform operated by theSAPP based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

“The fundamental benefit is thatwhere you do have surplus you (must)channel it to others that have shortfalls.It also optimizes the cost of implementa-tion of projects,” Makumbe says.

He adds: “Without this arrangement(power trading), a lot of countries will beexperiencing serious shortfalls.”

SADC has experienced power short-ages since 2007 as the generation surpluscapacity has diminished while demandhas grown.

This situation has prompted manyMember States to resort to various copingmechanisms that include load shedding aswell as other demand-side managementmeasures while longer term solutions arebeing sought to remedy the situationthrough improved supply.

One element is improved cooperation.Makumbe said this was best demon-strated during the 2010 FIFA World Cupwhen SADC Member States agreed todedicate most of their surplus electricity

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supplies to South Africa to ensure thatthere was adequate power during thetournament.

All power utilities in mainland SADC,except Angola, Malawi and the UnitedRepublic of Tanzania, are interconnectedto the regional grid through SAPP, allow-ing them to sell electricity to one another.

According to SAPP CoordinationCentre Manager Dr Lawrence Musaba,the main trading options are bilateralcontracts between member utilitieswhich are mainly meant to meet longterm security of supplies and are nego-tiated on a bilateral basis.

In addition to bilateral trading, SAPPhas established more competitive trad-ing platforms starting with the ShortTerm Energy Market (STEM) in 2001 andthe Day Ahead Market (DAM) in 2009.

Bilateral contracts still account formore than 90 percent of all energytraded in the region. They usually rangefrom one to five years and the pricing ofelectricity depends on the consumptionperiod – peak, standard and off-peak pe-riods – as well the negotiating capacityof the countries involved.

The STEM involves daily and hourlycontracts between power utilities thatmainly focus on off-peak periods. Thismarket caters for about five percent ofthe trading.

The DAM is an auction-type market.It allows utilities to weight their optionsand ensure that when it is cheap to getpower from the market, utilities will buyit rather than generate power.

This helps SAPP members to bid onand sell electricity a day before transac-tions are made.

In 2014, SAPP, with the help of Ener-web of South Africa, developed a newtrading platform with the aim of reduc-ing trading operating costs and also toadd other trading products.

The new trading platform will offermonth, week and hour ahead tradingoptions in addition to the current dayahead option.

Dr Musaba said power trading hasincreased significantly over the years.It soared to more than 450,000megawatt hours (MWhr) in February2015 compared to just 50,000 MWhrin 2009.

More than US$3 million is exchangedon the DAM each month, and about sixpercent of all energy which is traded inSouthern Africa is accessed through thecompetitive market.

Eskom Senior General Manager An-drew Etzinger acknowledged the impor-tance of the regional power cooperationfor South Africa.

According to figures from Eskom, theutility purchased 9,425 Gigawatt hoursfrom across its borders in 2014. Most ofthe electricity came from Mozambiquewhile some was imported from Lesothoand Namibia.

For instance, the Cahora Bassa Hy-dropower Station in Mozambique pro-vides up to 1,500MW of electricity toSouth Africa each day through a bilat-eral arrangement between the two coun-tries. That is enough to power almostone million South African homes.

For businesspeople like Ngcobo, theexistence of SADC’s power pool canonly be good for cooking up new busi-ness. w

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Fostering peaceand security inthe regionWHILE HER friends pondered leaving

the country because of possible un-rest during the snap elections held to re-solve political tensions, MphonyaneMofokeng was adamant the February 2015poll in Lesotho would be peaceful.

Mofokeng, the director of Thaba BosiuPrevention and Treatment Centre of theBlue Cross in Maseru, Lesotho, was provedright.

“I wasn’t nervous at all. I was tellingother people that nothing was going tohappen, not on voting day or on the day ofthe announcement of results. People werefearing tension between the army and po-lice, but I had prayed for a peaceful elec-tion,” she says.

Mofokeng said this poll was among themost peaceful she had experienced becauseregional governments contributed by send-ing observer missions at the request ofLesotho.

“They were neutral so they could keepthe peace between the police and army,”she says.

SADC sent 539 peacekeepers and 90electoral observers, according to Dr JoãoNdlovu, Regional Political CooperationCoordinator at the SADC Secretariat. Thepeacekeepers and observers were sent atthe request of Lesotho.

Pol ice weredeployed by Bots-wana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa,Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Thedeployment was done in line with the Pro-tocol on Politics, Defence and Security Coop-eration, which was ratified in record timeafter being signed at the 2001 SADC Summit.

The Protocol provides the mandate forthe Organ for Politics, Defence and Secu-rity at the SADC Secretariat to support theachievement and maintenance of securityand the rule of law in the region.

The emphasis of the Protocol and theOrgan is on prevention as SADC does notadhere to the notion that military or para-military interventions are the solution toaddressing political crises in the region.

However this does not mean that the re-gion is not prepared to intervene whenneeded.

The SADC Brigade, launched in August2008, supports regional peace operationsunder the African Union’s plan for a conti-nent-wide peacekeeping force.

This is where the SADC Regional Peace-keeping Training Centre (RPTC) comes in.Based in Harare, Zimbabwe, it has trainedover 5,000 individuals – military, correc-tional services, police and civilians – drawnfrom all Member States.

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“It’s not such a long time ago that peo-ple from the military of different coun-tries looked at each other as enemies,”said the former RPTC Commandant,Brigadier General Christopher Chellah.

The relative stability in the SADC re-gion is testament partly to the initiativesto improve relationships between coun-tries and to share in the load of peace-keeping missions.

Those trained at the RPTC have foundtheir skills in demand with an increasedrole as part of United Nations missionsand requests from the African Unionwhich has seen trainees flying the SADCflag throughout Africa and beyond.

“Our police officers have been partici-pating in different courses ... the expertisewhich has been gained has been of greatassistance to our police officers,” says Gus-tav Babile, Senior Assistant Commissionerof the Tanzanian Police Force.

Babile is one of more than 200 Tanza-nians who participated in such training.They have taken part in exercises heldacross the region, he said, and partici-pated in peacekeeping missions in “theFar East, Liberia, Darfur in Sudan, theComoros and many other places.”

In addition to providing peacekeep-ers and election observers, SADC is en-gaged in other activities to foster peaceand security in the region. These in-clude mediation efforts to address someof the political instabilities in MemberStates.

For example, the involvement ofSADC in Madagascar and Zimbabweallowed the two countries to resolvetheir political impasses, preventingthe situations from escalating into con-flict.

“One success is not so visible: SADC isrelatively peaceful, but it is not becausethere are no challenges or potential clashesbetween members,” says Dr Ndlovu.

There have been no new protractedconflicts in the region for nearlytwo decades. Dr Ndlovu credits co-op-eration and mediation efforts in pre-venting challenges from escalating intoconflict.

Preparation is key. “If you see howsuccessful we were in Lesotho, wherepeople were able to vote peacefully, youcan link that to the quality of leadershipand officers we have in the SADC re-gion,” says Dr Ndlovu. w

THE REGIONAL Peacekeeping Training Centre (RPTC) has contributedstrongly to meeting SADC’s 50:50 Gender Parity goals which seek to increasewomen’s representation in leadership in the region. “The Organ made an important contribution in ensuring gender balancein the defence and security structures across the region,” notes Dr João Ndlovu,Regional Political Cooperation Coordinator at the SADC Secretariat, referringto the SADC body for supporting security and rule of law in the region. “It was because of the SADC gender peer review that some Member Statesappointed women police commissioners and force commanders. Today it’s nolonger a myth to see a woman in a commanding position.” One of those trained at the RPTC is Rienada Milanzi, Tanzania’s Superin-tendent of Police Staff Officer: International Relations. “The role of women is vital because when you look at conflicts all overthe world, the most affected persons are children and women,” says Milanzi,who was deployed with SADC to Darfur, Sudan, for three years as part of theUnited Nations peacekeeping force. “In Darfur most of the peacekeepers in the internal displacement centresare men. But the citizens there, are mostly women and children. That meansit’s very important to have women police officers or care officers and civiliansto assist them. It’s a relief for the women because you know their conditionsmore than men.”

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TOURISM

Towards smoothmovement of touristsin SADC

THE TREND is encouraging. Thenumber of tourists visiting the

SADC region increased from 12.6 mil-lion in 2000 to about 23.2 million in2013, according to the Regional TourismOrganisation of Southern Africa (RE-TOSA).

Travel to the region is promoted bythe SADC Protocol on the Developmentof Tourism. Ratified in 2002, it seeks toimprove the quality of tourism services,safety standards and physical infra-structure to attract tourists and invest-ment into the region.

The Protocol states that traveling inthe region can be made easier by abol-ishing visa requirements for visitors. Itcalls on SADC Member States to createa “tourism Univisa which will facilitatemovement of international tourists inthe region in order to increase the mar-ket and revenue of the region in worldtourism.”

The launch of the Kavango-Zambezi(KAZA) Visa between Zambia and

Zimbabwe in November 2014 is the firststep towards adopting a Univisa in theSADC region. During the initial phase,the KAZA Visa allows tourists from 40countries to combine travel to the twoSADC neighbours without applying fortravel documents separately.

Valid for 60 days, the US$50 visagives tourists access to both countriesand allows entry to Botswana throughthe Kazungula border post whichserves all three countries.

“About 7,000 KAZA visas were is-sued during the first three months ofthe pilot phase,” says KAZA SecretariatProgramme Manager Mbiganyi Freder-ick Dipotso, noting that the project ex-ceeded expectations. Despite beingintroduced in the low season, notenough visas could be issued to com-pletely satisfy demand, for technicalreasons.

After the current pilot phase is as-sessed in mid-2015, the next step willextend the visa to fully cover Botswana

as well as the other countries thatshare the KAZA TransfrontierConservation Area, Angola andNamibia. While this is a smallstep, it is a critical move in theright direction.

The aim is to eventually extendthis arrangement to all 15 SADCcountries, thereby implementinga Univisa that allows tourists andothers to move effortlessly acrossthe region.

What is good for tourists isalso good for the business oftourism.

“A Univisa encourages freemovement of tourists but it alsoenhances the appetite for invest-ment,” says Kwakye Donkor,Marketing and CommunicationsDirector for RETOSA.

“It means we encourage peopleto stay in the region longer as theyhave access to more than onecountry. Longer stays create morejobs and the local communitythen stands to benefit.”

The KAZA Secretariat’s assess-ment of the pilot will include re-viewing challenges of equipment,access and infrastructure neededto support the rollout of a regionalvisa.

“The KAZA landscape hasgreat potential for tourism growthas some of the areas are currentlyunder-utilized,” notes Dipotso.

For travel agents like OwenMungabo from Zambia, the impactof the Univisa is slowly being felt.There is a steady stream of touristscoming in and out of his TravelShop in Lusaka who are lookingfor exciting holiday destinations inthe country and beyond.

“We are happy to see moretourists as Zambia is becomingmore accessible to tourists,” hesays, adding that greater benefitswill be felt during the tourismhigh season.

“We hope to get people comingto the sub-region in masses,” hesays. w

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STAGE 2All 5 KAZACountries

AngolaBotswanaNamibia

STAGE 3Pilot SADCCountries

MozambiqueSouth AfricaSwaziland

STAGE 4All 15 SADC Countries

DRC Lesotho

MadagascarMalawi

MauritiusSeychellesTanzania

STAGE 1KAZA PilotCountries

ZambiaZimbabwe

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Source KAZA Secretariat

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BIODIVERSITY

IT IS early afternoon at the Twee Riv-ieren gate to the Kgalagadi Transfron-

tier Park that straddles Botswana andSouth Africa. Receptionist Betty Jonkersis welcoming visitors.

Jonkers is one of many NorthernCape residents to whom the increasinglypopular park offers employment.

“Jobs are scarce around here,” saysJonkers, adding that working at the parkalso allows her to do what she enjoysmost: “I love tourism.”

The area surrounding the frontier isremote with few opportunities for eco-nomic development and employment.

“Members from local communities areemployed in various aspects of conserva-tion, tourism, technical services and fi-nance,” says South African NationalParks Tourism Manager, Ben Van Eeden.

“I think all the local communities inthis area depend on the job opportuni-ties provided by the park. And I thinkthat the economic benefit from theKgalagadi is critical in terms of the liveli-hood of communities in this area.”

The Kgalagadi Park covers about 3.2million hectares in Botswana and SouthAfrica with the majority of land inBotswana. The park also has an exitto Namibia through the Mata Mata gate.

As with theother TransfrontierConservation Areas(TFCAs) in theSADC region, thepark offers much more than just em-ployment and economic opportunities.

The TFCAs represent a regional ap-proach to biodiversity conservation andtourism development.

TFCAs were founded on the “realisa-tion that natural resources that straddleinternational boundaries are shared as-sets with the potential to meaningfullycontribute to conservation of biodiver-sity and the socio-economic develop-ment of rural communities,” notesSADC’s Programme for TransfrontierConservation Areas.

This is essential as biodiversity in theregion is under pressure due to climatechange, desertification, expansion ofhuman populations and settlements andwildlife poaching, among others.

“In terms of conservation, you get anopen system to wildlife management,you get a research base that you canshare. In terms of expertise, we can shareinformation between the two countries,”says Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park man-ager Steven Smith.

Crossing frontiers for development

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“It makes it a bigger area to managein terms of the movement of game andmovement of visitors to have a greatexperience in different types of envi-ronments in the park.”

A number of Protocols and strate-gies provide an enabling environmentfor the establishment and developmentof TFCAs in the SADC region. Theseinclude the SADC Protocol on WildlifeConservation and Law Enforcement(1999), the SADC Protocol on Forestry(2002), the SADC Protocol on SharedWatercourses (2002) and the SADC Re-gional Biodiversity Strategy (2006).

There are currently 18 TFCAs withinthe region. These are defined in theSADC Protocol on Wildlife Conserva-tion and Law Enforcement as largeecological regions that straddle theboundaries of two or more countries.

As such, these areas provide testinggrounds for regional integration as theyare transboundary and multi-sectoral bynature, with a focus on conservation anddevelopment for local people in andaround them. This drives regional inte-gration on a practical level by promot-ing the harmonisation of policies anddeveloping new ways of dealing withcritical issues such as transboundarylaw enforcement to combat poaching.

Income from entry to the parks isshared by South Africa and Botswana.The improvements in access to theKgalagadi Transfrontier Park have in-creased the potential for tourism andlocal economic development. Afterprocessing their passports at the TweeRivieren rest camp, tourists can enjoythe park and then exit via any of threecountries – Botswana, South Africa orNamibia.

“The road that you can use runsfrom Twee Rivieren all the way up toMata Mata on the Namibian border.There is a tourist access facility therewhere they process visitors travelingin either direction,” explains VanEeden.

Tourists have to spend at least twonights in the park before exitingthrough another country to preventKgalagadi being used as an alternativeroute by transport companies.

“We have seen a significant increasein tourists visiting the park ... increas-ing from about 20,000 to 30,000 visitorsa year,” says Smith.

Tourism and resort operators in allthree countries have noted the in-creased numbers with approval.

Obenne Mbaakanyi, Head of Mar-keting for the Botswana Tourism Or-ganisation, says the park has led toincreased stays within the country andexpanded their offerings for tourists.

Lodge management on routes lead-ing to the park report an increase intourists using their facilities as part oftheir transfrontier and diverse wildlifeexperience.

“Botswana tourism is a thriving in-dustry that greatly contributes to thenational economy. It is the second con-tributor to the country’s GDP aftermining,” says Mbaakanyi. w

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WATER

WHEN MERRIAM Shashape wasgrowing up in the North West

province of South Africa, she and hersiblings fetched water from the wind-mill dam each day.

“It was far to walk and we carried thefull buckets on our heads,” she recalls.When water in the dam ran dry, thenShashape and other villagers wouldhave to walk even further to fetch waterfrom the river.

Today, the 53-year-old mother andgrandmother, who now lives in Gaut-eng province, has easier access to cleanwater. Actively involved in a commu-nity project that helps women adapt toclimate change, she now maintains afood garden at home. There shegrows spinach, onions and carrots tosupplement the family’s meals and in-come.

“It is such a relief to have a tap close-by that the children can get to easily. Weuse the water for household chores andfor bathing. It also helps to water thegarden,” says Shashape, pointing to thetap in her yard.

“Life is easier now,” she says.As is the case for many in the SADC

region, the water Shashape receivesflows across borders. In Gauteng, many

residents like herrely on waterthat starts inLesotho’s MalutiMountains, fromwhere it flowsinto the Orange-Senqu River and then continues for2,200km to the Atlantic Ocean throughSouth Africa, Botswana and Namibia.

Given that it flows through fourSADC countries that all need thewater, the Orange-Senqu River re-quires transboundary cooperation inmanaging its finite resources. Thisstarts at the source, where Lesotho andSouth Africa cooperate with theLesotho Highlands Water Project toprovide water and hydropower, andcontinues downstream with agree-ments and projects to use the water eq-uitably.

More than 70 percent of the region’sfresh water resources are shared be-tween two or more SADC countries.

River basin organisations that sup-port joint infrastructure, planning andco-operation have been establishedacross the region in line with SADC’sProtocol on Shared Watercourses. Thewater division at the SADC Secretariat

Getting water co-operation to flow

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provides a platform for MemberStates to address water related issuesand challenges.

The Orange-Senqu River Commis-sion (ORASECOM) is an example ofsuch co-operation.

More than 19 million people rely onthe Orange-Senqu river basin. It is oneof the most developed river systems inthe SADC region with over 300 builtstructures ranging from inter- andintra-basin transfer schemes to largedams.

“One of the key values of the fourORASECOM countries – Botswana,Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa –working collectively on a river basinis that it aligns planning and forecast-ing/projection on future demandsand resource availability. In this way,the Commission promotes co-opera-tion beyond theory,” saysORASECOM Executive SecretaryLenka Thamae.

He points out the science of climatevariability and change projection canbe tackled better at a regional level asthese only make sense when viewedover a large geographic scale.

Examples of joint projects includethe recent co-operation betweenBotswana and South Africa to addressthe extreme scarcity of water in south-ern Botswana.

Water resources are critical to sus-tainable economic and social develop-ment. The region must manage itstransboundary resources effectively tomeet domestic, industrial and agricul-tural needs and for sanitation andwaste management for over 260 mil-lion people in the SADC region, ac-cording to Phera Ramoeli, SeniorWater Programme Officer at the SADCSecretariat.

“In SADC, water is available in rel-ative abundance, but there are spatialand temporal variations. The DRC hasmore water than the rest of the SADCMember States, with estimated vol-umes of around 43,000 cubic meters

per second coming out of the CongoRiver into the Atlantic Ocean on aver-age,” he says.

“In other areas, such as in someparts of Namibia, we have only 50mmof rainfall in a good year.”

This underlines the need for SADCto develop infrastructure to harnesswater where it exists in relative abun-dance and transfer it to where it isneeded through inter- and intra-basintransfer schemes.

But water access alone is notenough – it must also be clean and ac-cessible. The effects of climate changethreaten to make that even harder.

The water division’s strategy onClimate Change Adaptation in SADCnotes that climate change addspressure to existing threats on fresh-water resources and water manage-ment systems. It increases waterstress in already dry areas, for exam-ple, and undermines the waterquality in areas flooded by rain orseawater.

The strategy is clear on the need forwater infrastructure developmentwith structures for irrigation,drainage, water supply and sanitation,hydropower generation, flood man-agement and other purposes. Thesestructures help to manage water re-sources and break the region’s de-pendence on rainfall.

“SADC is able to support MemberStates through promotion of theirown projects as, ultimately, resourcesfor implementation of large water in-frastructure projects require invest-ments that can best be guaranteedby governments through sovereignloans at the national level,”Ramoeli says.

One example is the Kunene watersupply project, which does more thanjust supply water to Namibia’s drynorthern areas and southern Angola’sKunene region. It is also a good exam-ple of a collaborative project betweentwo Member States.

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SADC River Basin Organisations and Committees

THE MAPUTO-INKOMATI Tripartite Permanent TechnicalCommittee (TPTC) is a collaboration between three SADC Mem-ber States – Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. The com-mittee helps to manage the water flows of the Inkomati andMaputo rivers during times of drought and flood. The TPTC alsolooks at how to protect and develop these water resources.

The “Third Water Use Agreement of 1969” between Angolaand Namibia initiated the construction of the Kunene RiverScheme. The agreement established the Kunene Permanent JointTechnical Commission (PJTC) and enabled Namibia to extractwater from the Calueque Dam to supply water to the country’snorth.

The Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA) was established by Bu-rundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia.The LTA promotes regional cooperation required for socio-eco-nomic development and sustainable management of the naturalresources in the Lake Tanganyika basin.

The Limpopo River is one of the largest river basins in theSADC region, extending across Botswana, South Africa, Zim-babwe and Mozambique. The basin is managed by the LimpopoWatercourse Commission (LIMCOM), established through abasin agreement signed by the four states in 2003.

Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa formalized theOrange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) through thesigning of the “Agreement for the Establishment of the Orange-Senqu Commission” in November 2000. ORASECOM was thefirst commission established following the adoption and signingof the Revised SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses in Au-gust 2000.

Given the need to protect the unique Okavango river systemwhile satisfying the social and economic needs of Angola,Botswana and Namibia, the three states signed an agreement in1994 that formed the Permanent Okavango River Basin Com-mission (OKACOM).

Mozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania in 2008signed an agreement establishing the Ruvuma Joint Water Com-mission (Ruvuma JWC) with the principal objective of ensuringsustainable development and equitable utilization of commonwater resources of the Rovuma/Ruvuma River basin.

The Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM) agree-ment was signed by most of the riparian states in July 2004. Theagreement entered into force in June 2011 after being ratified bytwo-thirds of the signatories. The Zambezi River Basin is themost shared river basin in the SADC region, involving morethan half of the SADC Member States.

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“The source of water is in a dam ona shared river [the Kunene River] inAngola. From there it is transferred bypipeline and canal to Namibia whereit is treated and supplied to the needycentres in northern Namibia and also

pumped back into Angola to servetheir own needs,” explains Ramoeli.

“When countries come together asSADC members, then it is easier for usto sell these projects to investors becauseof the shared benefit, costs and risk.” w

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DISASTER MANAGEMENT

WHEN THE floodwaters came,Ellen Louka was more vulnera-

ble than most. Like thousands of others in her part

of rural Malawi, the elderly Phalomberesident was asleep in a mud house.But with her severely impaired vision,she was ill-equipped to flee to safety.

“I’m blind, I didn't see what washappening,” she explained. “I was as-sisted to get away from here, otherwiseI would have been washed away.”

Countless houses like Louka’s simplydissolved in the deluge. ”I did not man-age to rescue anything, I lost everythingI had in the house,” says Louka.

Luckily, her whole family survived.But like many of Malawi’s 2015 floodsurvivors, she escaped with little morethan the clothes she was wearing. Sheis grateful to have saved precioushealth documents she had wrappedaround her waist with a strip of fabric.

Louka’s story is becoming morecommon as climate change stimulatesunpredictable rains with increasingfloods in the region. Since manyweather and climate events affect sev-eral countries at once, SADC saw theneed to coordinate national policiesinto a regional approach.

One of the important regionalcooperation initiatives is SADC’s Re-gional Platform for Disaster Risk Re-duction.

When 700 people died duringflooding in Mozambique in the year2000, this was a warning to the region.Neighbouring countries offered helpand support. Later, when unexpect-edly heavy floods displaced morethan a million people in southernAfrica in 2007, SADC began to meetannually to prepare for future occur-rences. Member States have put inplace early warning systems and pre-pared resilience measures.

Inaugurated in 2011, the Platformhas saved hundreds of lives. Whenflooding struck again in 2014, fewerthan 20 people succumbed.

Officials in the nation attribute thelower death rate directly to thePlatform. All Member States nowhave some form of early warning sys-tem.

The multifaceted nature of theissue means that many SADC Proto-cols are involved (see Box on page23). Various practices and organisa-tions are tasked with disaster man-agement support.

Living with floods

SADC’s Regional Indicative Strate-gic Development Plan (RISDP) there-fore emphasises that cooperation isneeded for effective disaster prepared-ness with projects aimed at early detec-tion, early warning and disaster riskreduction.

“Disasters are not something thathappen at regional level, so obviouslyeach Member State has its own mandateto protect its citizens and there are pro-grammes which are there at MemberState level supported by national budg-ets in every country,” says KennedyMasamvu, Disaster Risk Reduction Ad-visor at the SADC Secretariat.

One example of country-led re-sponses is Mozambique’s flood reduc-tion initiative which is overseen by theNational Institute for Disaster Manage-ment (INGC) in Maputo. The INGC isresponsible for coordinating disasterrelief initiatives and providing infor-mation to the public on preventativemeasures.

“The main disasters that we have [inMozambique] are floods and cy-clones,” says INGC director MaurícioXerinda, adding that in 2000 theybegan to review how they operated.From simply responding to disasterswith rescue operations after floods,INGC began to take preventative meas-ures.

“We started to identify the places wehave to remove people,” he says. “Westarted a resettlement programme forpeople who live in vulnerable areas.”

He says at least 60 new resettlementareas have been created to move peo-ple from disaster prone areas to saferand higher grounds.

Each large village has its own localofficial who is briefed directly by theINGC, which in turn receives its infor-mation from SADC’s Regional Plat-form for Disaster Risk Reduction. It isa constant flow of up-to-date informa-tion.

“This coordination is a big benefitfor us,” says Xerinda.

Mozambique is one of the down-stream countries, which is greatly af-fected by what happens upstream.Failure to inform the country of anyheavy rains in any of the catchmentareas could have a catastrophic effect inMozambique.

The Zambezi Watercourse Commis-sion (ZAMCOM) provides informationto countries on the Zambezi RiverBasin about the movement of floodwater downstream as well as basic me-teorological data across the region. Thebasin covers Angola, Botswana,Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tan-zania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

ZAMCOM was monitoring thefloods in Malawi and Mozambiqueusing satellite images from the WaterObservation and Information System(WOIS), tracking the development andextent of the floods as the situation de-veloped.

“Disaster risk reduction and man-agement is a cornerstone of the ZAM-COM agreement,” explains ProfessorZebediah Phiri, the Executive Secretaryof ZAMCOM .

Professor Phiri says dialogue and ex-change of information between coun-tries is critical in preventing naturaldisasters such as floods and droughts indownstream countries in the river basin.

The director of the Department of In-ternational Rivers in Mozambique’sNational Directorate of Water, PauloCésar Alone Selemane, agrees.

“We know that water can be a sourceof conflict, but we also think that, in par-ticular for the SADC region, water hasbecome more a driving force for cooper-ation as opposed to conflict,” he says.

Selemane says the upstream coun-tries now regularly inform Mozam-bique of impending dangers, includinginforming his department well in ad-vance of any plans to open the floodgates of the dams (Kariba and CahoraBassa) in the basin.

It is an appreciation of the underly-ing geography and meteorology that22

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INSTEAD OF a single protocol ondisaster risk reduction or manage-ment, the multi-disciplinary nature ofdisaster risk management means thatseveral existing SADC documents arerelevant to the issue:• Article 2 of the Protocol on Poli-

tics, Defence and Security Coop-eration notes that a specificobjective of the Organ on Politics,Defence and Security Coopera-tion will be to “enhance regionalcapacity in respect of disastermanagement and co-ordinationof international humanitarian as-sistance.”

• Article 25 on Emergency HealthServices and Disaster Manage-ment of the Protocol on Healthstates that Parties shall:o (i) co-operate and assist each

other in the co-ordination andmanagement of disaster andemergency situations;

o (ii) collaborate and facilitateregional efforts in developingawareness, risk reduction,preparedness and manage-ment plans for natural andman-made disasters; and

o (iii) develop mechanisms forco-operation and assistancewith emergency services.

• The Regional Water Policy in-cludes provisions covering peo-ple’s protection from waterrelated disasters, including per-sonal security and property pro-tection, disaster prediction, andmanagement and mitigation. 23

has led to officials understanding thedirect link between heavy rains in thehighlands of Angola and surges thatsweep downstream for thousands ofkilometres.

“If Mozambique knows that thereare heavy rains occurring in southernAngola, they at least have severalmonths to prepare for eventual floods,”says Masamvu.

Coupled with SADC Member Statesdrawing up contingency strategies thatare inclusive of local communities, theflood warning system is much improved.

With Mozambique now actively pro-moting river awareness through its dis-aster programme, the number of directdeaths attributed to floods havedropped significantly – making it a realexample in the region. w D

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THE PROCESS of approval of a regional legal instrument requires,first, signing, and then ratification, a process that differs from countryto country. The protocol “enters into force” following ratification bytwo-thirds of SADC Member States. This advances the regional lawfrom being a stated intention to actual application.

© SADC, SARDC 2015

www.sadc.int www.sardc.net Knowledge for Development

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