Southern African Regional Programme

The Southern African Regional Programme is a joint programme by the FES offices in the SADC-Region under the guidance of the Africa Department at FES headquarters. It includes the FES offices in Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Regional activities complement national programmes run by each FES country office.

The FES Southern African Regional Programme was established

• To support the economic, political and social integration of Southern African countries within the framework of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and
• To provide regional platforms for exchange of experience, knowledge-sharing, peer-learning and standard-setting by key stakeholders and FES-partners.

Like the national programmes, the Southern African Regional Programme deals with political, economic and social issues linked to FES’ mission of deepening democracy, promoting economic prosperity, improving the social situation and supporting initiatives for the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
On the political level FES is mainly co-operating with

• the SADC – Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), the umbrella body of Southern African Parliaments and a parliamentary lobby for deeper integration,
• the SADC Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (SADCOPAC), which seeks to improve the standards of accountability and parliamentary oversight within the region,
• the Election Commissions Forum (ECF), which tries to improve standards for the conduct of democratic elections in the region through exchange of experience and peer-learning,
• the SADC Gender Unit, i.e. the structure at SADC headquarters in charge of promoting gender equality within the region,
• the Southern African Defence and Security Management Network (SADSEM), a network of research institutions and researchers, that is widely regarded as providing key inputs into the efforts to promote regional peace and security in Southern Africa, e.g. by providing expertise in view of the promotion of democratic security governance within the region,
• the SADC Council of NGOs (SADC CNGO), which lobbies for greater participation of civil society in the SADC decision-making process.

On the economic level, FES in particular

• has worked with a network of economic research institutions and individual researchers in the SADC-region on research looking into the impact of SADC Member States’ national macro-economic policies on deeper economic integration in the light of the SADC criteria for macroeconomic convergence,
• organises the annual “Southern African Forum on Trade” in conjunction with the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), as well as other regional activities on trade and trade-related matters.

On the social level, FES mainly

• supports a SADC-wide network of social security specialists, composed of academics and government officials, which, since 2001, have build a knowledge-base on social security issues in the region and given advice to policy makers both at SADC and national levels;
• organises, already since 1995, an annual “Regional Labour Symposium” on regional and international labour-related issues, in partnership with the Southern African Trade Union Co-ordinating Council (SATUCC).

For each of these projects, a specific FES-office acts as responsible ‘lead office’ within the FES network and main interlocuteur of our respective partners (e.g. FES Namibia is responsible for the co-operation with Windhoek-based SADC-PF), while all the offices, in one way or the other, participate in the implementation of activities.