His Excellency Mr. Elias M. Magosi, the Executive Secretary (ES) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met with His Excellency Mr. Oumar Sylla, African Regional Director for United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Gaborone, Botswana on 18th January 2024.
The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen the relations and cooperation between SADC and UN-Habitat, following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2023. The MoU establishes a legal framework for cooperation and facilitates joint efforts to reinforce urban resilience, advance disaster risk reduction, and enhance climate change adaptation, among other areas of mutual interest.
Moreover, the MoU outlines several thematic areas of cooperation, including resilience building, disaster risk management, and climate adaptation and mitigation in urban areas, people-centered smart cities, research, knowledge exchange, monitoring and evaluation, as well as financing for development.
H.E. Magosi emphasised the significant impact of climate change on the SADC region, highlighting the need to address urban resilience and protecting rural vulnerable communities. He advocated for the establishment of early warning mechanisms to effectively respond to climate change and disaster challenges. Additionally, he expressed gratitude to the government of the Republic of Botswana for committing to host the UN-Habitat sub regional office.
Furthermore, he emphasized the importance of the technical teams commencing their work in preparation for the implementation the MoU, with a specific focus on priority components and expedite the development of action plans.
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Mr. Sylla, on behalf of UN-Habitat, welcomed the opportunity for productive engagement with the Secretariat and highlighted his organisation's readiness to support the region in integrating green infrastructure solutions into human settlement planning and development, enhancing climate-resilient infrastructure, and securing financing. He also highlighted the vast expertise of UN-Habitat in urban resilience, early warning, disaster preparedness, climate adaptation, and the potential for knowledge sharing and support for the SADC region. He urged prompt action to establish modalities for harmonising regional standards for human settlement. He also emphasised the need to strengthen Anticipatory Actions by Member States to address the impacts of El Niño.
One of the significant tools for supporting countries in developing Smart Sustainable Cities (SSCs) is the SADC Digital Transformation Strategy (DTS), which was adopted in 2023 to drive Digital Transformation. The objective of the strategy is to accelerate the adoption of digital technologies, maximizing the socio-economic and political impact for the benefit of the people in line with SADC's regional development agenda. The DTS plays a crucial role in the aspiration of all sectors within an SSC ecosystem, including energy, water, transportation, ICT, meteorology, manufacturing, health, education, and commerce.
Ms. Angele Makombo N'tumba, the SADC Deputy Executive Secretary responsible for Regional Integration, along with other senior officials from both institutions also attended the meeting.
