Book Description

On 3 and 4 September 2007, the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD) and the Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung (FES) jointly hosted the fourth Southern African Forum on Trade (SAFT) on the theme of 'Revisiting regionalism in Southern Africa.' Like its predecessors, the fourth SAFT provided a platform for critical debate and reflection on trade-related matters, bringing together from the region academics, activists, policy-makers, and senior officials working in the field. This latest meeting of the SAFT was aimed at revisiting the approach to regional economic integration adopted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) from both a normative and an empirical perspective. One objective was to provide a basis from which to assess the current trajectory of regional integration and co-operation in SADC beyond the milestones for deeper integration set by SADC itself. This was done by taking a step back, and having a fresh look at different models of regionalism with regard to their respective potential in meeting the socio-economic and political development challenges of Southern Africa.