25 June 2021 – Organisations from across Southern Africa will come together on 29 and 30 June 2021 to interrogate the region’s 10-year strategic plan and urge governments to ensure the ambitious roll-out tangibly benefits the region’s most vulnerable, amid the challenges of the Covid-19 crisis, climate change and growing poverty and inequality.

The virtual regional dialogue for non-state actors will bring together a diverse range of non-state actors – representing civil society, business, smallholder farmers, informal traders, people’s movements, media and trade unions – to assess and inform the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) implementation plan for the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030, due to be approved before the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit in August 2021.

The dialogue, held under the theme Building Back Better – Ensuring Social Accountability in Southern Africa’s Development, will feature presentations by the SADC Secretariat and national government representatives, as well as parallel discussions on critical issues of climate change and sustainable agriculture, domestic financing of healthcare, gender and development, inclusive labour policies, vaccine access and the participation of youth and civil society.

The dialogue builds on SADC’s commitment to partner with non-state actors in the roll-out of the RISDP. The 10 co-conveners are urging member states to actively engage their people in the development of national implementation plans that prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable and, ultimately, create even more resilient, inclusive and socially accountable nations and communities.

Media can register for the dialogue by visiting https://bit.ly/2Swwo2J.

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About the co-conveners: The dialogue is convened by: Southern Africa Trust, Southern African People’s Solidarity Network, Economic Justice Network (EJN) of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa (FOCCISA), Southern Africa Coordination Council (SATUCC), GenderLinks, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the Partnership for Social Accountability (PSA) Alliance (a consortium of organisations including ActionAid International (AAI), Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) of Rhodes University, Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF) and SAfAIDS).

About the RISDP 2020-2030: The RISDP covers key areas of regional integration: peace, security and good governance (the foundation); industrial development and market integration (pillar I);  infrastructure development in support of regional integration (pillar II); social and human capital development (pillar III); and cross-cutting issues of gender, youth, environment, climate change and disaster risk management. The full document is available at https://www.sadc.int/files/4716/1434/6113/RISDP_2020-2030_F.pdf

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