Twenty communications experts met in South Africa from March 1 to 3 to develop a Southern African Development Community communications and promotional strategy.

The communications strategy shall serve as a guide for systematic and continuous communication of SADC amongst the people of the region and cooperating partners outside in order to improve the level of information and knowledge sharing with the view of hastening the development and integration of the region.

The strategy shall be supported by a network of information entry and dissemination points within all the Member States in order to facilitate a wider reach for SADC information.

The experts represent a cross section of the SADC stakeholders at national and regional levels including: the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Southern African Editors’ Forum (SAEF), Southern African National News Agencies Pool (SANAP), InterPress Service Africa (IPS) and the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC).

The development of the Communications Strategy is part of the SADC Information 21 Project, a three-year project launched in November 2003 and funded by the Belgium Government to the tune of 2.4 million Euro (about M18 million).

The process to develop the strategy dates back to March 2004 when the SADC Secretariat carried out and information needs assessment in the region through consultative workshops involving media and other stakeholder organisations. 

04 March 2005