The Standing Committee of Senior Officials from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are meeting on 22 – 23 March 2018 at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), O R Tambo Building in Pretoria, South Africa to review and prepare documents for the meeting of Council of Ministers scheduled for 26-27, March 2018.
The meeting was officially opened by the Director-General for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation for the Republic of South Africa, Mr. K E Mahoai who is also the Chairperson of the SADC Standing Committee of Senior Officials.
Mr Mahoai called on the Senior Officials to continue embracing the principles of the “The SADC We Want”, which is an expression of the region’s mutual objective to create a prosperous and integrated region. “We should advance The SADC We Want by following the priorities espoused in our core adopted frameworks and strategies such as the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap and the Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organ (SIPO II),” stated Mr Mahoai.
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. The Council of Ministers oversees the functioning of the SADC institution and ensures that policies and decisions are implemented.
The meeting welcomed the Union of Comoros who attended the meeting for the first as a new Member State following admission at the 37th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Pretoria, South Africa, in August 2017.
