The Outgoing GIZ Country Director for Botswana, Mr.Thomas Schaef bade farewell to the Executive Secretary of SADC, Her Excellency Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax on 1st March 2019, at the SADC Headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana after two years of service in Botswana. During the meeting, the Outgoing Country Director also introduced the Incoming Country Director for Botswana, Mr. Daniel Baguitz, who was previously the Cluster Coordinator for Sustainable Economic Development in Namibia.
Mr. Schaef thanked the SADC Executive Secretary for affording them the opportunity to see her, and for the support that the SADC Secretariat continues to render to GIZ to ensure effective coordination and implementation of regional programmes. He called upon the Secretariat to extend the same level of cooperation and support to the new Country Director.
On her part, Dr. Tax thanked the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Outgoing Country Director, for the cordial relations that continued to exist between the two institutions, and for the support provided to SADC in various areas of regional integration over the years. She appreciated the progress made on a number of joint programmes, and ongoing activities, including support to the review of the Revised RISDP and SIPO, and the preparation of the 2050 vision. She further expressed SADC’s gratitude for the successful SADC-Germany consultations that were held on 19th and 20th March 2019. She recalled that the consultations had agreed upon trade and Industrialization, trans-boundary water management, trans-boundary use and protection of natural resources, resilience to climate change, peace, security, and national and regional linkages as future areas of cooperation.
The SADC Executive Secretary wished the Outgoing Country Director well, as he takes up his new appointment in Iraq, and welcomed the New Country Director to Botswana and SADC, and looked forward to work with the new Country Director.
The two parties agreed to continue to engage on ongoing programmes as well as in preparation for the November 2019 SADC-Germany negotiations.
