The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), the forerunner of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), was a memorandum of understanding on common economic development signed in

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...

, Zambia, on 1 April 1980. It is formalised as the ''

Lusaka Declaration The Lusaka Declaration of the Commonwealth on Racism and Racial Prejudice (short: the Lusaka Declaration) was a declaration of the Commonwealth of Nations on the issues of racism and egalitarianism within and between Commonwealth member states. I ...

'' (entitled ''Southern Africa: Towards Economic Liberation'') ratified by the nine signing states ( Angola, Botswana,

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

, Malawi, Mozambique,

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe). Some of the main goals for the Member States were to be less dependent on apartheid South Africa and to introduce programmes and projects which would influence the Southern African countries and whole region. The Co-ordination Conference was a result of consultations in the late seventies. In May 1979 representatives of the Frontline States met in Gaborone and resolved that ministers of all member states should meet to discuss common economic development. This meeting materialised two months later in Arusha, where the formation of the SADCC was decided. The headquarters of the SADCC were located in Gaborone, Botswana, since 1982. The Declaration and Treaty establishing the SADC, which replaced the Coordination Conference, was signed at the Summit of Heads of State or Government on 17 August 1992, in Windhoek, Namibia.

References

Organizations established in 1980 Organizations disestablished in 1992 International organizations based in Africa Southern Africa 1980 establishments in Africa 1992 disestablishments in Africa {{Africa-org-stub