SADC Protocols

The overall aim of SADC is to achieve Regional Integration and Eradicate Poverty within the Southern African region. To achieve these goals, Member States need to work together harmoniously in achieving effective results on common problems and issues.

A Protocol is a legally binding document committing Member States to the objectives and specific procedures stated within it. In order for a Protocol to enter in to force, two thirds of the Member States need to ratify or sign the agreement, giving formal consent and making the document officially valid. Any Member State that had not initially become party to a Protocol can accede to it at a later stage.

Protocol on Finance and Investment

The FIP gives effect to Article 22 of the SADC Treaty by seeking to foster harmonisation of the financial and investment policies of the state parties. The need to accelerate growth, investment and employment in the SADC Region through increased cooperation, coordination and management of macroeconomic, monetary and fiscal policies and to establish and sustain macroeconomic stability as a precondition to sustainable economic growth and for the creation of a monetary union in the Region urged SADC Member States to sign the Finance and Investment Protocol in 2006.

Through this Protocol Member States acknowledge their collective duty to achieve economic growth and balanced intra-regional development, compatibility among national and regional strategies and programmes, to develop policies aimed at the progressive elimination of obstacles to the to free movement of capital labour, goods and services, and of the residents of the Member States, improve economic management and performance through regional cooperation, and to create appropriate institutions and mechanisms for the implementation of programmes and operations in the Region. The FIP was signed in August 2006 by all SADC member states and was ratified by the required two-thirds majority of member states during 2010, thus FIP came into force on 16 April 2010.

Annex 10 of FIP sets out the scope of CISNA. Annex 10: Co-operation on Non-Banking Financial Institutions (NBFI) and Services brings together the regulatory authorities in SADC Member States responsible for the financial sector activities outside the banking sector such as the insurance, securities markets (stock exchanges), pension funds, asset managers and other non-banking financial institutions. It aims at contributing to the sound regulation, effective supervision and rapid development of financial services industries.