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SADC Day message from Hon. Paul Raymond Berenger on the SADC Day Tuesday 17 August
Paul Raymond Berenger, G.C.S.K., G.O.N.M, Prime Minister of Mauritius and chairperson of SADC
August 17, 2004

http://www.sadc.int/index.php?action=a2001&news_id=150&language_id=1

Fellow SADC Citizens!
It is with immense pleasure and honour that in my capacity as the new Chairperson of SADC, I address you on the occasion of the 2004 SADC Day

Commemoration of SADC Day is an important event in the history of our organization. I share with you the joy that this august day brings to all the SADC citizens. It is on this day, 12 years ago, that the SADC leaders changed the Organisation from the Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference to the Southern African Development Community thus signaling a new era of enhanced co-operation and the building of a stronger and integrated economy in our region. Through political commitment, hard work and unity of purpose, we have managed to make our Organisation a force to be reckoned with on the African continent.

Fellow SADC Citizens!
Every SADC citizen must not only have the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter and clothing, but must also enjoy access to good quality health services and sanitation. This can only happen if there is creation of wealth and jobs. One area in which we stand to reap good results if we tap into it more vigorously is agriculture. There is enormous potential in agriculture, which can assist us in furthering our development goals.

The Dar es Salaam Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, which we adopted in May this year, is a clear indication of our commitment towards improving food production and food security in the region.

Our challenge is to provide agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and farming implements to our small holder farmers. We also have to provide them with access to markets for their produce. In most SADC Member States, input and output markets are far from the main producing areas, which are mainly in the rural regions. Therefore construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of roads and bridges to increase access to rural and remote areas is a fundamental requirement to boost agricultural production, thereby, improving the welfare of our peoples. To this end we need to invest more in these areas. The plea we made at the Food Security Summit in May this year, to progressively increase financing to agriculture by allocating at least 10% of our respective national budgets to it, has to be realised, to enable our region to break the vicious circle of food insecurity.

Our region is prone to drought, floods and cyclones which have adversely affected food production in the region. They demonstrate, more than ever before, the need for the region to be prepared to tackle such crises.

We need to establish a functional Regional Food Security Information System. This would eventually, help in the promotion of trade while contributing to the enhancement of our capacity for timely delivery of food supplies to affected populations during emergencies and thus, minimising the disruptions on longer-term agricultural growth and development.

The idea of establishing a SADC Food Reserve Facility should be pursued. This project when realised will enable us to feed our people during crisis periods. We also need to reverse our heavy reliance, on rain-fed agriculture. We should adopt and explore all avenues for the use of new irrigation technologies.

Fellow SADC Citizens!
We are also facing an unprecedented HIV and AIDS crisis that has placed our region in a state of severe vulnerability, a situation exacerbated by high poverty levels. Our brothers and sisters in the age group of 15 to 49 remain adversely affected in the majority of our Member States. The pandemic has left hundreds of thousands of our children homeless. Being infected themselves and due to loss of parents, they have become more than ever vulnerable. HIV and AIDS is a priority issue for us and will always remain at the top of the agenda in all our meetings. We shall continue to implement national and regional policies on HIV and AIDS focusing on prevention, care and support and on mitigating the socio- economic impact of this pandemic. This is one of the most serious problems that we have to face. It requires the selfless effort and dedication of each and everyone in SADC region to fight this scourge.

Fellow SADC Citizens!
SADC is not merely an economic grouping. We have developed a Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, which provides guidance for the implementation of timebound priority programmes. We have set specific goals and targets in this Plan to enable us to attain our objective of eradicating poverty. This is in line with the millenium development target of halving poverty by the year 2015.

Fellow SADC Citizens!
We are commemorating SADC Day in an environment where a culture of free and fair elections prevails. We have observed the holding of successful elections in Malawi and South Africa early this year. Later this year Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia will be going to the polls. The United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe are expected to hold elections next year. This is indeed, a clear expression of the region's commitment to democracy,

My Fellow SADC Citizens,
The Southern African Development Community belongs to all of us in this region. Let us take a moment today to reflect on our contribution in building a winning Community, a winning Community that our future generations will cherish, and be proud of.

I wish you all a happy SADC Day!

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