Southern African Development Community

The Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC), established on 1 April 1980 was the precursor of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The SADCC was transformed into the SADC on 17 August 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia where the SADC Treaty was adopted, redefining the basis of cooperation among Member States from a loose association into a legally binding arrangement.

The main objectives of SADC are to achieve development, peace and security, and economic growth, to alleviate poverty, enhance the standard and quality of life of the peoples of Southern Africa, and support the socially disadvantaged through regional integration, built on democratic principles and equitable and sustainable development.

The Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ (SIPO) remain the guiding frameworks for SADC Regional Integration, providing SADC Member States,SADC Secretariat and other SADC Institutions with consistent and comprehensive programmes of long-term economic and social policies.

The SADC Vision is to build a region in which there will be a high degree of harmonisation and rationalisation, to enable the pooling of resources to achieve collective self-reliance in order to improve the living standards of the people of the region.

The vision of SADC is one of a Common Future, a future within a regional community that will ensure economic well-being, improvement of the standards of living and quality of life, freedom and social justice and peace and security for the people of Southern Africa.