Leveraging Services Trade Liberalization for Enhanced Food Security in the Southern Africa Development Community

The document examines the link between services trade liberalization and agricultural productivity in the SADC region. It argues that inefficient, monopolized network services—specifically finance, transport, communications, and energy—hinder agricultural growth and food security. The author advocates for the aggressive pursuit of the SADC Services Protocol to attract investment and reduce transaction costs, thereby enabling a transition from commodity exports to value-added agro-processing.

• Agricultural performance in the SADC region has declined, with per capita production growth falling from an average of 1.3% in the 1960s to 1.0% in the 2000s, despite agriculture supporting 70% of livelihoods and 50% of employment in most member states.
• SADC's trade liberalization efforts have primarily focused on the trade in goods and tariff reductions, while services trade liberalization has been largely ignored or treated superficially.
• The SADC Services Protocol, adopted in July 2009, identifies six priority sectors for liberalization: transport, communications, financial, construction, tourism, and energy, with a goal to conclude negotiations by 2015.
• Network services in SADC—comprising communications, energy, finance, and transport—are characterized by high costs, inefficiencies, and government monopolies, which impede the region's ability to integrate into the global economy and diversify into value-added processing.
• Financial services are critical for smallholder farmers to manage risks and finance production, yet these farmers continue to have limited access to such services.
• Deficiencies in transport and logistics infrastructure exacerbate food crises by increasing transaction costs and price volatility, particularly in food-importing countries.
• To move beyond exporting raw commodities, SADC requires specialized services such as cold storage, packhouses, and refrigerated transport to maintain product quality and reduce nutritional losses.

APA

Dube, M. (2012). Leveraging Services Trade Liberalization for Enhanced Food Security in the Southern Africa Development Community. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/iisd_tkn_perspectives_june_2012.pdf

Chicago

Dube, Memory. Leveraging Services Trade Liberalization for Enhanced Food Security in the Southern Africa Development Community. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2012. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/iisd_tkn_perspectives_june_2012.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dube |first1=Memory |title=Leveraging Services Trade Liberalization for Enhanced Food Security in the Southern Africa Development Community |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2012 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/iisd_tkn_perspectives_june_2012.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dube2012leveraging, author = {Dube, Memory}, title = {{Leveraging Services Trade Liberalization for Enhanced Food Security in the Southern Africa Development Community}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2012}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/iisd_tkn_perspectives_june_2012.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }