Regional Integration Learning and Exchange Symposium hosted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and GIZ in partnership with Lesotho

Under the theme, “Strengthening Capacities of SADC National Committees for Effective Coordination and Communication in SADC”, a symposium was held on 3-4 July by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning of the Kingdom of Lesotho, to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and understanding of the SADC regional integration architecture among Member States and their National Contact Points.

In her opening remarks, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, who is also the SADC National Contact Point for Lesotho, Ms Nthoateng Lebona, stressed the need to build national and regional capacities for coordination and communication in order to deepen regional integration for accelerated and broad-based economic development.

Highlighting the need for information sharing among various stakeholders, Ms Lebona noted that regional integration and cooperation offer tremendous opportunities for expanding markets that can be served through cooperation agreements in various member states.

In his welcome remarks, the Acting Director of Industrial Development and Trade at the SADC Secretariat, Mr Calicious Tutalife, expressed that "Facilitating strong relationships, peer learning, and exchange between national coordination structures in member states has the potential to contribute to the establishment and full operationalisation of SADC National Committees and related structures in a manner that promotes the realisation of the aspirations set out in the SADC Treaty, the SADC Vision 2050 and the RISDP 2020-2030".

The symposium was attended by SADC National Contact Points, National Media Coordinators from all SADC member states, national civil society representatives, regional non-state actors, media and communication experts, members of the Lesotho National Cluster Sub-Committee and officials from the Lesotho Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, which hosted the symposium. It was supported by the SADC-German Strengthening National-Regional Linkages Programme (SNRL), implemented by GIZ.