This panel provides a broad overview and analysis of a number of trends and processes in the southern African region during the first decade and a half after apartheid, covering aspects such as FDI, the impact of HIV/AIDS, trade politics, women in political decision-making in the different SADC member countries and attempts at developing an effective organisation aimed at promoting regional well-being.
The panel provides an overview and analysis of a broad range of developments within the SADC region over the period 1990-2005. The end of the Cold War and the demise of apartheid in South Africa after early 1990 provided the impetus for a new approach to (and era in) the history of what was known from 1980-1993 as the SADCC region. The early 1990s also saw indications that the region would be heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS and although the end of apartheid brought expectations of a ‘peace dividend’ and of security, stability and development to southern Africa, the region soon had to contend with a number of serious problems, ranging from attempts (largely successful, though daunting) at ending the civil war in Mozambique, to a continuing war in Angola (with the first sign of a possible peace only visible after the death of Jonas Savimbi early in the new century) and the outbreak of a protracted civil war in the former Zaire (now DRC). Both the international community and the members of SADC (SADCC was transformed into SADC to prepare for and accept SA as a member in 1994) had high expectations of a ‘free’ and democratic South Africa’s role in the economic development of the region, led by the newly transformed regional organisation, and soon SA businesses started moving into neighbouring countries. The effect of these momentous events and processes in the region, spanning fifteen years, is explored and assessed in the papers to be presented on this panel. The broad topics below will be covered.
In 2003, UNAIDS launched a scenario-building exercise to explore the impact that HIV/AIDS might have in Africa over the next 20 years. Creating a unique public-private partnership, UNAIDS combined their experience regarding the global AIDS pandemic with Royal Dutch/Shell's history of and expertise in developing scenarios and futures methodologies. Pieter Fourie as a former member of the UNAIDS scenario team outlines a number of key impressions, insights and lessons learnt fromt his unique scenario-building process. The paper's focus is on the future impact of AIDS in the SADC region specifically, highlighting the tough choices that those with power have to make in order to 'make their future'.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important source of capital for developing coutries in general and African countries in particular. Despite the fact that Africa's share of developing country FDI is declining, nominal flows to the continent increased since 1990. Although unevenly spread, SADC countries are currently receiving approximately 38 percent of these flows. The aim of this paper is to establish the impact of FDI on the individual countries in general and the SADC region as a whole, covering the period 1990-2003. In particular the research will investigate to which SADC countries and industries these flows are going as well the individual country growth impact of these flows. The determinants of these flows as well as the neighbouring effects will also be discussed in order to establish what SADC countries can do to strengthen and enhance these flows to ensure maximum benefits for growth and development in the region.
The paper starts with the position and role of SADC in promoting women's rights in SADC states and in particular women in political decision-making at all levels of government. This is followed by an assessment of women in political decision-making in a number of SADC states. The paper does not merely focus on the numerical representation of women in political structures; rather, it addresses their role in political decision-making. The paper concludes with the major obstacles in political participation that women in southern Africa still face and the extent to which SADC and the various national governments can address such obstacles.
This paper investigates a number of challenges facing SADC as a regional
organisation. These include:
Implementing the restructuring programme
adopted by the Summit in 2001;
Developing the organisation into a building
block of the African Union as required by the AU's Constitutive Act;
Political obstacles to community development, e.g. civil internal decline,
civil collapse, war in the DRC and the impact of other wars in sub-equatorial
Africa.
The paper concludes with recommendations on how SADC can address the
above challenges.