The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold an Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on Wednesday (23 June 2021) in Maputo, Mozambique.
The summit that will be chaired by SADC chairperson, Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, who is also President of Mozambique, is expected to discuss regional integration, cooperation and development issues.
The Wednesday summit will be preceded by the meeting of the SADC Standing Committee of senior officials today and the meeting of the SADC Council of Ministers tomorrow.
A SADC Secretariat statement issued on Sunday noted that the summit will also discuss the regional response and support to Mozambique in addressing terrorism in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
It will also discuss regional food and nutrition security, gender and development, and progress in the regional response to HIV and AIDS and the Covid-19 pandemic. Reads the statement in part:
The summit will review progress made in the implementation of the theme of the 40th SADC Summit; SADC: 40 Years Building Peace and Security, and Promoting Development and Resilience in the Face of Global Challenges, which was endorsed by the SADC Summit in August, 2020.
_The Summit will also mark the regional commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of SADC with the launch of three publications by His Excellency Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, President of the Republic of Mozambique, in his capacity as the chairperson of SADC._
_The publications to be launched are; 40 Years of SADC: Enhancing Regional Cooperation and Integration; Volume 2 of Mozambique SADC Success Stories and the Hashim Mbita (Southern African Liberation Struggles)._
The statement also indicated that the SADC flag and those of SADC member States shall be flown at half-mast during the Extraordinary Summit and preceding meetings in honour of the late founding president of Zambia, Dr Kenneth Kaunda who died Thursday.
Kaunda played a pivotal role in the formation of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), the forerunner to SADC.
