In celebration of 2019 as the International Year Of Indigenous Languages, SADC has adopted a language from its east African brothers and sisters. Not only will Swahili be recognized as an official language, but will be recognized as a mode of communication in business in all sectors and the environment.



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Last week the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) welcomed the declaration by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to adopt kiSwahili as its fourth official language of communication.



The announcement came as the world celebrated 2019 as the International Year Of Indigenous Languages and was announced during the SADC 39th heads of summit in Tanzanian at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre to ensure that the marginalization of African languages as languages of business was dealt with.



“This milestone achievement towards recognition and elevation of indigenous African languages across the SADC region forms part of the greater effort in ensuring development, usage and intellectualisation of our heritage languages,” said the Chairperson of the Board, Dr David wa Maahlamela. 



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Existing official languages of SADC currently are English, Portuguese
and French.



Africa is the only continent where a majority of the languages taught in
schools are international foreign languages such as Arabic, English, French,
Portuguese and Spanish.



“KiSwahili would be adopted at the level of Council and Summit, first as a language for oral communication, before eventually being adopted for written official communication within SADC,” says GCIS.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">This would make Kiswahili the first indigenous language to be used by the bloc as an official language at inter-state level.</blockquote>



It is already an official language of the African Union.



“KiSwahili is an impeccable point of departure in safeguarding integrative multilingualism inclusive of indigenous languages,” Maahlamela said.



It is also the official language of Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda with over
100 million speakers.



“We have for long been very much concerned that not only South Africa has experienced the marginalisation of indigenous languages, but also our SADC region, where mostly English language took prominence amongst others. 



 “South Africa as a member state has a huge responsibility ahead in ensuring that indigenous language not only becomes communication languages, but also business languages in all sectors and environment,” Maahlamela concluded.



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Karibu! SADC Adopts KiSwahili As An Official Language

In the alphabet soup of regional African trade blocs, will
the AfCFTA ease the cost of doing business on the continent?



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Ghana has been named the host of the African Continental
Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) following four years of talks to form a 55-nation
trade bloc. It will be the base for the AfCTA secretariat.



The opportunities for Africa with this new trade bloc are immense. The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that the AfCFTA will create the world’s largest continental free-trade area, provided all 55 African Union (AU) members join, and has the potential to create an African single market of 1.2 billion consumers whilst eliminating about 90% of tariffs on goods over the next five years. 



So far, 44 African countries have signed up for the historic agreement, the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization.



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The AfCFTA is expected to boost the economies of African
countries through employment creation and the promotion of made-in-Africa
goods. But Kayode Akindele, a partner at TIA Capital, a pan-African investment
partnership focussed on credit-based investing across sub-Saharan Africa, is
not opening up the bubbly just yet.



“We already have ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African
States] which doesn’t seem to be working and so why don’t we sort that out
first before we enter a continental trade agreement for Africa?”



And he is not alone in his concerns. 



“There are other factors we need to also consider. Firstly, with the implementation of the AfCFTA, goods made in other continents could be disguised as made-in-Africa to qualify for duty free treatment. There could also be a reduction in government revenue and also this trade bloc also threatens the profitability and survival of infant industries,” says Vincent Acheampong, an economist based in the United Kingdom.



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Of the regional blocs in Africa, including EAC (East African
Community) and SADC (Southern African Development Community), the ECOWAS has
some way to go in terms of performance, according to Muda Yusuf, the Director
General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in an interview with
CNBC Africa. But he believes there is still reason to be optimistic.



“A continental trading bloc is going to build on the success
of the regional blocs like ECOWAS and other blocs across Africa. So, this
integration is going to build on those blocs. In terms of performance, of
course ECOWAS is the least performing because East Africa is doing very well
and South Africa is doing far better also. But there is no perfect time for
things like this, what is important is for us to get a conviction that economic
integration will work for us and also if we can get our institutions to make it
work,” says Yusuf.



Amongst the many challenges of the ECOWAS is its failure to
implement its vision of a single currency, the ECO, which is part of its plans
to make Africa a more integrated continent. That vision has been postponed
several times by the 15-member group with the newest target date set for 2020
although most experts believe the date to be unrealistic.



The success of the AfCFTA requires not only a trade policy but also a manufacturing agenda, competition, industrial policies and property rights to work well according to Vera Songwe, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, in a statement at the launch event that took place in Niamey, Niger. 



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The ninth edition of the flagship Assessing Regional
Integration in Africa report (ARIA IX) stipulates that AfCFTA’s success will be
due to its ability to actually change lives, reduce poverty and contribute to
economic development in Africa. 



In support of the new trade bloc, Ghanaian President Nana
Akufo-Addo pledged to donate $10 million to the AU to support the operationalization
of the secretariat of the AfCFTA.



Although the AfCFTA will be economically transformative for
Africa in the long-term, the immediate benefits will be restricted due to the
macro-economic uncertainties of regional trade.



“Most African countries are currently not producing the
goods and services that their neighbors import, as a result we do not trade a
lot with each other. It is easier for an African country to trade with a
country in Europe than a country that lies right next to it and these low
levels of intra-African trade need to be addressed before we can reap the full
benefits of the AfCFTA,” says Acheampong.

Africa, elements of this image furnished by NASA

Towards One Africa

Cyclone Idai, which recently devastated Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, was one of the&nbsp;worst&nbsp;natural disasters to hit the southern African region. It killed at least&nbsp;a thousand&nbsp;people and caused damages estimated at&nbsp;US$2 billion.



The response from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, civil society, the private sector and individuals in the region points to the need for a collective, regional approach to addressing natural disasters – rather than individual countries working alone.



Idai also showed, once again, just how unprepared SADC is to respond to major natural disasters. It doesn’t seem to have learnt much from earlier ones.



In 2015, floods and torrential rains associated with the&nbsp;tropical storm Chedza, and&nbsp;Cyclone Bansai&nbsp;left about&nbsp;260 people dead&nbsp;and 360,000 homeless in Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.



About a year earlier,&nbsp;flash floods&nbsp;killed, displaced and left thousands homeless in Zimbabwe. However, the storm that remains most vivid in many people’s minds is the one that hit Mozambique 19 years ago&nbsp;in 2000, killing 700 people and leaving two million homeless.



Disasters of this kind&nbsp;know no boundaries. That’s why they require thinking beyond the narrow view that individual governments should respond to crises alone.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Responses to Idai</h4>



The first regional response to Idai came from the&nbsp;South African National Defence Force&nbsp;and South African disaster relief NGO,&nbsp;Gift of the Givers. These responses followed a&nbsp;request&nbsp;by the Mozambican government.



The United Nations responded with&nbsp;aid operations&nbsp;in the affected countries a few days later.&nbsp;Other SADC countries, NGOs, the&nbsp;private sector&nbsp;and&nbsp;ordinary citizens&nbsp;also&nbsp;donated&nbsp;to the relief efforts.



For its part, however, SADC’s voice was conspicuously absent for at least a week after the devastation. Ordinarily, it should have led relief operations.



It was disconcerting to see UN Secretary General António Guterres appeal for help and outline a plan to respond to the disaster at a&nbsp;Security Council stakeout, while SADC remained missing in action.



SADC has a dedicated&nbsp;Disaster Risk Reduction Unit. It coordinates regional preparedness and responses to trans-boundary disasters and hazards. But, as South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said, the regional body was&nbsp;completely unprepared&nbsp;for the disaster.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Pooling resources</h4>



Of SADC’s 16-member states only Angola, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa contributed to the relief efforts. This reflects the prevailing preference for a&nbsp;bilateral approach&nbsp;to regional challenges within the SADC.



At the heart of this are narrow nationalistic interests and a preoccupation with sovereignty. The member states are unwilling to surrender control over policies to be administered by the regional body for the collective good.



But, natural disasters like Idai doesn’t respect national boundaries. Their very regional scope requires solutions that integrate domestic actions into a regional governance framework to address them effectively.



When SADC eventually responded, it&nbsp;pledged US$500,000&nbsp;for relief efforts towards a disaster that cost over&nbsp;US$2 billion&nbsp;in damages to infrastructure alone.



Instead of acting individually, SADC countries need to work together to pool resources and mobilise disaster relief efforts and resources to be more effective. This could be done through the SADC Secretariat.



Funds for immediate humanitarian assistance and the rebuilding of infrastructure should be held in a preexisting, dedicated facility, like a regional disaster risk fund.



This would provide southern Africa with risk financing for climate-related and other disasters. Funds that are often donated by SADC member states, private sector, NGOs, and ordinary citizens for relief efforts can also be pooled and placed in the permanent regional mechanism.



But, there are challenges.



The major challenge to establishing a sub-regional disaster fund probably lies outside SADC, and even Africa. The idea might not sit well with some governments. For example, an attempt to create an Asian Monetary Fund after the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis failed because the US&nbsp;strongly opposed&nbsp;it, and China didn’t support it.



But, SADC could work with global financial institutions to surmount this challenge. The World Bank, for example, already runs&nbsp;disaster risk programmes. SADC could approach it for support and partnership in making the facility a reality.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Cushion against harm</h4>



Cyclone Idai has once again shown that natural disasters are capable of wreaking havoc across southern Africa. It’s also shown that affected countries are too poor to respond to the devastation of their infrastructure and the accompanying humanitarian disaster.



It is thus necessary for countries in the region to work together to devise sound contingency plans, including a permanent regional disaster fund, to help cushion them against the effects of natural disasters.



-Chris Changwe Nshimbi; Director &amp; Research Fellow, University of Pretoria



-The Conversation



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Southern African Countries Won’t Manage Disasters Unless They Work Together

Getting Africa out of the development woods will require more than technology and telecommunications. After decades of lost trading opportunities, Africa needs a new trading lens. Personal and institutional initiatives to close the lacuna between ‘extant realities’ and development ideals is desperately needed.
New advanced technologies, progressive policies and new investment models to integrate economic and political systems would certainly help. Africa must open up its markets to African customers. We need to build new factories, generate energy solutions and open up trade corridors across the vast continent.
Intra-Africa tourism barely exists and intra-Africa trade is low, between 10 and 12% of total trade. Trade within Africa needs to surpass trade between Africa and the rest of the world. West Africa now accounts for 40% of the total African, Caribbean and Pacific trade with the European Union.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) region accounts for about 45% of Africa’s trade with the rest of the world. In East Africa, Kenya’s top 10 export markets are Uganda, Tanzania, Netherlands, the United States (US), Britain, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, UAE, South Sudan and Egypt. The five African countries here account for more than 30% of Kenya’s total exports. Kenya’s tea makers are yet to make a serious push into Nigeria, Africa’s largest market.
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi produce excellent Arabica coffee. Most of it ends up in North America and Europe. You will search very hard to find East African produce in stores between Dakar and Douala. European coffee brands however abound.
Africa is largely disconnected from itself due to its poor infrastructure, restrictive immigration policies, corruption, failure to formalize informal trade, and unclear customs and immigration rules. Fresh facts emerging, however, suggest it is improving slightly. Data for 2013/14 shows that intra-African finance is a significant source of foreign investment in low and middle-income countries such as Burundi (79%), Namibia (42%), Rwanda (62%), South Sudan (64%) and Uganda (45%).
National and regional policy frameworks need to be strengthened and harmonized. This is a job for governments, companies and citizens alike.
Easing trade barriers would help. Building on a current system which allows citizens visa-free access to other West African countries for 90 days, the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is planning to launch a biometric identity card in 2016. It will be a digital identification card, travel document, and residence and work permit. This biometric passport is expected to resolve the regulatory bottlenecks that penalize local businesses at the expense of their international competitors.
Similar integration plans in other regional economic blocs also exist, aimed at reducing the expense and stress of traveling and trading across Africa.
Kinshasa and Brazzaville are only divided by the Congo River, yet a return ferry ticket cost the equivalent of $40, more than 40% of the average monthly wage for a Kinshasa resident. It costs less to move a container of maize from the flood plains of the Mississippi, US, to Dakar in Senegal, than it is to take the same harvest from Dakar to Tema in southern Ghana.
An ongoing diplomatic détente between Accra and Nairobi seems poised to attenuate these issues.
Puzzled by the poor levels of trade between Ghana and Kenya, Leah Nduati Lee, a Kenyan married to a Ghanaian, organized the very first Kenya Trade Expo in the Ghanaian capital last November. The three-day event smoothed trade relations between the two regional giants, building on the seven agreements signed in 2014 by President John Dramani Mahama and President Uhuru Kenyatta, to consolidate existing economic and trade ties, and deepen institutional cooperation in the energy, ICT, trade, tourism, transport, agriculture and education sectors.
According to Kenya’s Export Promotion Council, the country’s exports to Ghana were worth KSh479 million (around $4.7 million) in 2014, while imports from Ghana were worth KSh369 million ($3.6 million).
During the expo, Kenya’s envoy to West Africa, Ambassador Tom Amolo, said that consensus building between Africa governments to tackle integration issues is beginning to happen.
“Kenya is fully open for business,” says Amolo. “Our investment promotion frameworks continue to foment long lasting networks and commercial alliances between the business communities in East and West Africa… Deepening and broadening integration is essential for Africa’s inclusive development.”
The momentum between the gateway economies across Africa needs to be sustained.

Tag: SADC

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Karibu! SADC Adopts KiSwahili As An Official Language

Towards One Africa

Southern African Countries Won’t Manage Disasters Unless They Work Together

TRADE WINDS MusT Blow