Southern African Development Community (SADC)

SADC Profile

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been in existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine majority-ruled States in Southern Africa known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), with the main aim of coordinating development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa. The founding Member States are: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

SADCC was formed in Lusaka, Zambia on April 1, 1980, following the adoption of the Lusaka Declaration - Southern Africa: Towards Economic Liberation.

The transformation of the organization from a Coordinating Conference into a Development Community (SADC) took place on August 17, 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia when the Declaration and Treaty was signed at the Summit of Heads of State and Government thereby giving the organization a legal character.

The Member States are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

SADC headquarters are located in Gaborone, Botswana.

REC Activities

AUC Chairperson convened RECs, RMs & AUDA-NEPAD

May 14, 2025

H.E.

SADC Member States Trained on the AMHEWAS Programme on Disaster Risk Reduction

October 17, 2022

AU-SARO Presentation of Credentials to the SADC Executive Secretary

April 01, 2022

On 1^st April 2022, The AU Permanent Representative to Southern Africa and COMESA, H.E Ambassador David Claude Pierre paid a Courtesy visit to the Southern Africa Development Community(SADC) in Gaborone Botswana.

Communiqué: Meeting of AU Bureau of Assembly of HoSG with Chairs of AU RECs

April 29, 2020

His Excellency, President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa, and Chairperson of the African Un

Statement: Extra-Ordinary Meeting of SADC Ministers of Health on COVID-19

March 09, 2020

Extra-Ordinary Meeting of SADC Ministers of Health on COVID-19

March 09, 2020

The main purpose of the meeting was to share existing knowledge and information on the COVID-19 outbreak, which has had devastating global impacts since its outbreak in December 2019, and agree on how to harmonize and coordinate the preparedness and response to Covid-19 in the SADC region.