MEDIA BRIEFING NOTES BY HONOURABLE KABINGA PANDE, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZAMBIA AND SADC COUNCIL OF MINISTERS CHAIRPERSON, ON THE OCCASION OF POST EXTRAORDINARY COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEDIA BRIEFING

NOVEMBER 09, 2007
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media,

The purpose of today’s meeting is to share information about the SADC Extra Ordinary Council Ministers’ meeting that took place today Friday November 09, 2007, here at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre, Lusaka, Republic of Zambia, where SADC was born some 27 years ago.

Capitalising on the coming together of most of the key players in the regional integration, the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration has also met here to review progress towards the SADC Free Trade Area. The meeting also received the Draft Roadmap to the Customs Union and noted with satisfaction that, the region is indeed ready to launch the SADC Free Trade Area next year as per the set milestones.

Preparing for the Ministerial Task Force were the Senior Officials on Regional Economic Integration who met here on Monday November 05 and Tuesday November 06, 2007.

As is customary with SADC policy meetings, the Extra Ordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers was preceded by the meeting of the Standing Committee of Senior Officials that took place on Thursday November 08, 2007. This is the meeting that serves as the clearing house for the Council Agenda.

The Extra Ordinary Council meeting dealt with specific issues that could not be finalised during its seating of August 2007 Council meeting as follows:

The Job Evaluation of the SADC Secretariat that has been underway at the instruction of the Council of Ministers meeting of August 2006 in Maseru, Kingdom of Lesotho. It aims at adjusting and realigning the structure of the SADC Secretariat to the prioritized SADC Programme of Action based on its Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Strategic Plan of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (SIPO).

In this regard, Council noted the Report of the Executive Secretary on the Job Evaluation and in principle approved the structure, specifically the establishment of a second position of Deputy Executive Secretary (DES), consequently, the abolition of the position of the Chief Director. This means there shall be two Deputy Executive Secretaries, one for Programmes and the other for Support Services as well as the creation of a position of the Director For Finance and Administration Services.

Council also instructed the Secretariat to develop an implementation plan that shall include, amongst others, the recruitment process and adherence to the quota based recruitment system; equitable gender staff representation; a skills audit of the current staff compliment to determine suitability of translation into new ranks and position in the proposed structure and the financial implications for the proposed new structure.

The Council meeting also considered the report of the Officials Task Force it had tasked to review the operations of SADC Integrated Committee of Ministers (ICM).

The ICM is a Treaty policy structure that came into being with the restructuring of SADC Institutions in 2001, replacing the 21 Sectoral Ministerial meetings in dealing with SADC programmes as clusters instead.

As SADC strives for efficiency and delivery of maximum benefit from all its activities, it became necessary to review the operations of the ICM. Against that background, Council, during its meeting of August 2006 in Maseru set up a Senior Officials Task Force for the purpose. The Task Force proposed the abolition of the ICM and presented a Proposed Framework for the Operationalisation of the Working Committees.

Thus, Council approved the convening of Sectoral Ministers’ Committee as follows:

• The Cluster for Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (currently constituted as a Ministerial Task force on Regional Economic Integration), comprising of Ministers responsible for Finance, Economic Planning and Investment, Trade and Industry;

• The Cluster for Infrastructure and Services Support for Regional Integration consisting of Ministers responsible for Energy, Water, Transport and Public Works, Communications and ICT and Tourism;

• The Cluster for Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment comprises of Ministers responsible for Food Security, Ministers responsible for Natural Resources, Ministers responsible for Environment;

• The Cluster for Social, Human Development and Special Programmes consist of Ministers responsible for Health and HIV and AIDS, Education, Labour and Employment, while the Cross Cutting Issues Sectoral Committee is to be attended by Ministers responsible for Science and Technology and Ministers responsible for Gender.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media,

Council also deliberated on the SADC Budget Outlook Paper for the years 2007/2008 – 2010/2011, which is a medium term strategic planning and budgeting framework that outlines the economic background within which the SADC Programmes of action are planned, funded and implemented.

Council also considered and approved an amendment to the theme for the 2008 SADC International Consultative conference on Poverty and Development to read: “Regional Economic Integration: A Strategy for Poverty Eradication towards Sustainable Development.” The Conference is scheduled to take place in Mauritius in April 2008.

I thank you for coming and for your attention.