As a consequence of the Iran War, provoked by the United States of America (USA) and Israel, the energy and food security of Southern Africa is a central concern for the region.
At the end of the two-day meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), held today in Pretoria, the South African Foreign Minister, Ronald Lamola, whose country holds the presidency of the organization, noted that the impact of international tensions puts the countries of the region at risk.
Lamola stated that governments need more data to assess the economic and energy consequences of these crises, which directly affect the economies of the bloc.
"It's not just about the Iran war and the Middle East, but about geopolitics in general."
"We must ask ourselves how to move forward together as a region, how to build and protect our sovereignty ," he added.
The member countries agreed to convene a special meeting of foreign ministers next May to analyze the regional impact and define a coordinated response. SADC seeks to consolidate information from the various ministries and define a regional strategy, highlighting the region's critical minerals for the energy transition and the development of new technologies.
"We must reflect on how to use these resources for the benefit of the region, through transformation, processing and the creation of added value ," he stated.
According to Lamola, the objective is to ensure that the bloc's natural resources contribute to regional development and job creation.
“The whole world looks to Africa for these resources, and the SADC region possesses a large share of them, but we not only have the resources, we also have the mining expertise necessary to exploit them ,” Lamola stated.
The Iran war brought to the forefront another central theme of the meeting: the revision of the Regional Strategic Indicative Plan for Development (RISDP), which guides the economic integration of the bloc.
“We observed very little growth in regional integration, which increased from approximately 19% to 21%. This is still insufficient for an organized and cohesive region ,” Lamola stated.
The RISDP for the period 2020-2030 prioritizes a set of high-impact regional initiatives aimed at boosting economic growth, strengthening resilience to climate change, accelerating industrialization, and improving infrastructure connectivity in the region.
The minister considered that the main obstacle lies in the persistence of non-tariff trade barriers between member states.
"Increased regional trade will also generate jobs in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa: this is about shared prosperity ," he said.
SADC is a regional bloc composed of 16 countries in Southern Africa, whose objective is to promote economic integration, sustainable development, political stability, and regional cooperation.
Picture: © 2024 Leon Sadiki/Bloomberg via Getty Images
