The SADC framework for human security: RISDP and SIPO
These are the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and its political programme which the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (SIPO) embodies.
"The distinction between the Trade Protocol and the
RISDP is important," says Tralac executive director Trudi Hartzenberg.
Under the
RISDP, member states have pledged to integrate their markets, cooperate and work closely in areas such as regional infrastructure development, energy, agriculture, trade and industry, tourism, education, health and many others.
While the
RISDP failed to consider the adverse effects that processes of unequal development could exert on both the consolidation of democracy at the national level and interstate cooperation at the regional level, the fact that SADC formulated neither an industrialisation strategy, nor a social development program in order to complement its trade liberalisation agenda, contributed to further entrenching the historical polarisation of economic development in Southern Africa (Pallotti 2004).
To speed up the integration process further, SADC also put in place strategic plans such as the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (
RISDP), which is a blueprint for development; and the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (SIPO), whose main objective is regional integration.