Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states need to contribute more to the regional body’s budget, outgoing SADC chairperson Festus Mogae said on Thursday.
The SADC, as a regional organisation, still has difficulties implementing any of its targeted development programmes with its own resources, Botswana’s president told a summit meeting in Maseru.
”If one looks at the outlook budget for 2007/8, member states are expected to contribute 39%, while its international partners are expected to contribute 61%.
”Certainly the implementation of our development agenda cannot depend on funding from international cooperating partners to the extend that it does.”
Mogae said there was a need for a spirit of self-reliance within the community.
”We need to show commitment by contributing significantly more of our own resources towards programmes and projects.”
Mogae also handed the SADC chairpersonship to Lesotho’s Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili during a ceremony on Thursday.
The 14 SADC heads of state started deliberating on the regional body’s budget and other issues during the afternoon.
Still to be discussed at the two-day summit was the re-admission of the Seychelles, which left the community in 2004 due to financial constraints. Mogae said although the SADC has made some progress on its integration agenda, these efforts were not as ”fruitful” as he would have liked.
SADC officials have indicated that the Maseru summit can be seen as a springboard to ”scale up” the body’s regional integration agenda, specifically in regard to trade. — Sapa