The Sunday Mail
Moses Magadza
JOHANNESBURG. — ALL stakeholders in the SADC region have an obligation to mobilise funds for implementing the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030, if the ambitions of the region are to be realised.
Independent consultant Mr Daniel Chiwandamira made the call when he made a presentation on Understanding the Resourcing of the RISDP at Regional and National levels — Commitments, Barriers and Reporting during a three-day hybrid meeting for Non-State Actors (NSAs) from across southern Africa. Mr Chiwandamira urged NSAs to put pressure on the authorities to operationalise some of the funding options open to the region to implement the development plan. He indicated that the total cost of implementing the RISDP has been estimated at US$413 463 280 over a 10-year period.
He gave a breakdown of the anticipated costs of implementing the planned activities over a 10-year basis despite already being two years into the implementation period.
“Strategic Management of the RISDP would cost US$14 257 167, which is 4 percent of the total estimated costs,” he said.
He said implementation of activities under Pillar 1, under which industrial development and market integration fell, is estimated to cost a total of US$134 781 721 or 33 percent.
“Activities under Pillar 2, under which infrastructure is covered, are projected to cost US$62 007,344 or 15 percent of the total implementation costs,” he said.
According to Mr Chiwandamira, implementation costs for activities under Pillar 3, which include social and human capital development, were estimated at US$15 820 228, representing 4 percent of the total projected implementation costs while provisions for Pillar 4 activities involving cross-cutting issues were estimated at US$102 336 572, which is 25 percent of the total projected costs for the 10-year implementation period.
The estimated costs for the foundation, which involves peace, security and good governance, were estimated at US$84 260 249, translating to 20 percent of total projected implementation costs.
Mr Chiwandamira said regional priorities, assumptions and estimated resource requirements were approved by the SADC summit in August 2020, and RISDP 2020-2030 was the main blueprint to the attainment of the SADC RI agenda, drawing long-term direction from Vision 2050.
“The RISDP 2020-2030 Implementation Plan (Council, June) 2021 was costed to enable the realistic design of strategies that take account of affordability and identify the resource gaps to be used as a basis for resource mobilisation,” he said.
According to the consultant, while the cost estimates approximate a programme’s probable cost, the 10-year implementation period made it challenging to predict expenditures for the entire programme.
The consultant highlighted challenges with potential funding channels, and said the region needs to act fast if it is to save the situation. He argued that an envisaged Regional Development Fund (RDF) would be critical in financing crosscutting, programme integration, management and mainstreaming.
“The biggest challenge for RDF is operationalisation.
“The agreement to operationalise it was approved in 2016 and member states (MS) have since put in place internal measures to expedite operationalisation of the fund,” he said, adding that NSAs must put pressure on the authorities to get the fund moving.
He said the fund creates regional funding mechanisms for economic development with a focus on integration and a contemplated membership of member states, international cooperating partners (ICPs) and the private sector.
“SADC is looking to engage ICPs for equity participation and grant allocation with an initial authorised capital of US$13 billion,” Mr Chiwandamira said, adding that a consultancy was underway to review options to operationalise the fund. He noted that global economic shocks were contributing to member states not committing to the fund.
Mr Chiwandamira observed that the potential funding channel for agriculture was the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF).
This fund is designed to accelerate implementation of RAIP 2017-2022 and focuses on several facilities, including agricultural infrastructure; markets and trade; agricultural information management; food and nutrition security; environment and natural resources; and governance and institutional development.
“The challenge with the ADF is also operationalisation and there is a clarion call for NSAs to put pressure to bear for the fund to start,” he said.
As of July 2020, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) had raised US$10,3 billion in pledges from 49 countries and the SADC Secretariat had commenced the process of accreditation to the GCF as regional implementing entry.
“The Development Bank of Southern Africa had also sought accreditation to support the GCF, whose projects include climate resilient systems for the SADC water sector,” Mr Chiwandamira noted.
Other potential funding channels for agriculture are the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Adaption Fund.
“The GEF addresses issues of climate change, food security, land degradation, etc. and is involved in stakeholder engagement for design and implementation of GEF projects, including CSOs, private sector and indigenous people.”
The Adaptation Fund was established under the Kyoto Protocol with a focus on agriculture, disaster risk management, water management, rural management, food security, among others.
“More than US$850 million was allocated for environmental adaptation projects. SADC projects include the South-South Cooperation Grant (Botswana and Mozambique), resilience building as climate change adaptation in drought-stricken south-western African communities (Angola, Namibia), improving adaptive capacity of vulnerable and food-insecure populations in Lesotho, etc,” the expert said.
He said the potential funding channels for the youth was the International labour Organisation (ILO) which supports promoting employment for the youth which provides capacity building and undertakes advocacy.
The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) Youth Entrepreneurship and Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund help to increase youth employment; to increase access to finance and business survival of youth and women-led start-ups and micro, small and medium enterprises.
Mr Chiwandamira said the SADC Challenge Fund-GIZ/BMZ Project on Industrialisation and Women Economic Empowerment (IWEE) seeks to build capacity of women entrepreneurs in participating in SADC’s industrialisation agenda.
In the Health sector, the consultant said the Global Fund helps to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; Roll Back Malaria.
“Since 2002, the fund has invested over US$5.5 billion to fight deadliest pandemics facing humanity. It invests US$4 billion annually on programmes to defeat HIV, TB and malaria; and provided funding to develop programmes to support declaration to eliminate TB in the mining sector.”
There is also the SADC HIV and AIDS Special Fund that supports HIV and AIDS research projects or interventions.
Mr Chiwandamira highlighted challenges affecting funding including that capacity of MS to contribute to funding has been compromised by a trend of widening fiscal deficits in most SADC MS and Public debt increased gradually since 2011 resulting in low capital expenditure.
According to the analysis, the SADC region is heavily dependent on bilateral and multilateral ICPs and the Covid-19 and global economic recession exacerbated limited ability to mobilise resources in the region.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has left a mark with rising fuel prices, inflation and financial instability due to supply constraints and high dependence on oil and gas exports or imports, imported grain and fertilisers among others.
The analyst highlighted the role of NSAs as an opportunity for engagement on resource mobilisation.
“NSAs need to be purposeful about participating in the mobilisation of funds for RISDP implementation and also play a role in lobbying governments and ensuring that RISDP priorities are included in national budgets,” he said.
The NSAs were gathered in Johannesburg, to assess progress on the implementation of SADC’s 10-year RISDP strategy, which has less than eight years to run. The dialogue started on 13 September and ended on 15 September, 2022.
The dialogue was convened by Southern Africa Trust, Southern African People’s Solidarity Network, Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa, Southern Africa Coordination Council, Gender Links, Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Partnership for Social Accountability Alliance (a consortium of organisations including ActionAid International, Public Service Accountability Monitor of Rhodes University, Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum and SAfAIDS.
