The Standing Committee of Senior Officials from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States are meeting via video conference from 16 – 17 March 2020, ahead of the SADC Council of Ministers video conference meeting to be held on 18th March 2020.
Speaking during the opening of the meeting in Dar es salaam, United Republic of Tanzania the Chairperson of the SADC Standing Committee of Senior Officials who is also the Permanent Secretary, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, in the United Republic of Tanzania, Ambassador Col. Wilbert Augustine Ibuge commended SADC Member States for participating in the meeting through the video conference which was necessitated by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Ambassador Col. Ibuge also commended the SADC Secretariat under the leadership of H.E. Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, the SADC Executive Secretary for the cooperation and facilitating the video conference meeting, following the recommendations of the SADC Ministers of Health meeting as one of the measures to control the spread of the Coronavirus.
On the prevention of Coronavirus, Ambassador Col. Ibuge urged SADC Member States to take necessary measures to protect each other and to join hands to prevent the further spread of the virus.
The Chairperson of the Senior Officials, said, the United Republic of Tanzania, as the Chair of SADC, is fully committed to the realisation of the objectives of SADC regional integration. He indicated that for SADC to achieve regional integration, it is imperative to ensure full participation of the private sector and non-state actors in the regional integration agenda.
During the meeting, the Senior Officials discussed a number of issues to be considered by the Council of Ministers which included, among others, the commemoration of 40th Anniversary of SADC and the SADC Post 2020 Agenda, which includes the formulation of SADC Vision 2050 and the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030 as well as the status of implementation of the previous decisions of SADC Council of Ministers.
The SADC Standing Committee of Senior Officials is a technical advisory committee whose mandate, among others, is to review and clear documents for the SADC Council of Ministers which oversees the functioning of the SADC institution and ensures that policies and decisions are implemented.
