What the blocs are missing

The paper critiques African regional economic communities, particularly the Southern African Development Community (SADC), for lacking the transparency and organizational capacity to achieve their goals. It argues that these bodies often serve as diplomatic facades for national leaders rather than effective instruments for regional development, and calls for the application of the African Union's standards of accountability to these multinational organizations.

• Africa has 14 regional economic communities that frequently overlap or are inactive, and none possess the necessary funding, staff, political commitment, or organizational structure to meet their stated goals of creating common currencies, harmonizing policies, or establishing free trade areas.
• The Southern African Development Community's (SADC) guiding document, the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), is criticized for being vague and failing to specify who is responsible for implementing its goals across 12 priority sectors, such as poverty eradication and infrastructure.
• The author suggests that national leaders may prefer weak regional bodies because they allow heads of government to show goodwill to neighbors without risking the conflict that would arise from assertive regional action or meaningful reform.
• SADC lacks financial transparency; while its total budget is listed as $16 million on its website, the secretariat considers specific budgetary breakdowns confidential, making it difficult for donors or citizens to assess value for money.

APA

South African Institute of International Affairs (2007). What the blocs are missing. https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/

Chicago

South African Institute of International Affairs. What the blocs are missing. 2007. https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=South African Institute of International Affairs |title=What the blocs are missing |date=28 January 2007 |url=https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{southafricaninstituteofinternationalaffairs2007what, author = {{South African Institute of International Affairs}}, title = {{What the blocs are missing}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2007}, month = jan, url = {https://saiia.org.za/research/what-the-blocs-are-missing/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }