The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been in existence for more than 36 years. The signing of the Windhoek Treaty in August, 1992, ushered a new dispensation, an Economic Community which adopted an integration development model that was later buttressed by the adoption of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) in 2003, which set out clear milestones for deepening regional integration and trade liberalization amongst SADC States. Following the adoption of the Revised RISDP 2015 – 2020, as an outcome of the RISDP Mid Term Review, which frontloaded industrialisation as the key regional priority programme, SADC Council of Ministers came up with a strategy that would not only accelerate implementation of priority programmes, but also expand the funding base for regional integration, in particular industrialisation, through innovative and sustainable funding options. The main objective was to move away from over-dependence on International Cooperating Partners (ICPs) for funding of core programmes, an unsustainable model. Alternative sources must be explored to finance the regional integration agenda. As directed by the SADC Council of Ministers, this report explores and analyses several funding options and their modalities, based on the studies that were undertaken in the year 2016.
Based on the current model of financing, the regional integration agenda is mainly funded through (1) Member States contributions of US$42,276 million for the financial year 2017-2018; and (2) by ICPs contributions of US$24,962,000. The costs for coordinating the regional integration agenda for the period of 2015-2020 were budgeted with US$620 million and the indicative investment costs ADC