By Moses Magadza

All is set for the Standing Committee Sessions of the SADC Parliamentary Forum that will take place from 19 to 22 May 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa, under the theme: “Enhancing Parliamentary Advocacy for the Effective Domestication and Implementation of SADC Protocols for Democratic and Inclusive Governance.”

The Director of Programmes and Parliamentary Business at the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Mr Sheuneni Kurasha, has stated that 14 of the 15 Member Parliaments would attend, with only Zambia unable to participate because of the dissolution of Parliament ahead of elections.

Kurasha stressed the role of parliaments in translating regional commitments into tangible benefits for citizens as the Forum prepares for the Standing Committee Sessions ahead of the 59th Plenary Assembly.

Speaking in an interview ahead of the meetings, he said the theme reflects a strategic decision by the Forum to intensify advocacy for the domestication of SADC protocols over the next two years.

“The regional commitments or the SADC agenda are intended to benefit SADC citizens, and this benefit only comes if these regional instruments are translated into national frameworks through policy and law,” he said.

Kurasha noted that parliaments occupy a critical position because they possess the legislative authority to convert regional agreements into domestic legislation and policies.

“The uptake or the rate of domestication has been observed to be slow. Therefore, parliaments need to come on board to play that important role,” he added.

He said democratic and inclusive governance, which the meetings seek to advance, can only be realised through effective implementation of regional commitments backed by national legislation, financing and parliamentary oversight.

“Parliaments have an important role, first, in facilitating the enabling legislation, harmonisation of legal frameworks for countries to be able to realise regional integration objectives,” he said.

Kurasha further highlighted the representative role of parliaments in linking regional integration processes with citizens.

“The policies only make sense if they are connected to the people, or if people know about them and know what they are intended to do. So the SADC project is premised on the people, it is really for the people,” he said.

On inclusive governance, Kurasha said the Forum remained deliberate in ensuring that women, youth and persons with disabilities are integrated into legislative and policy processes.

“There can’t be legitimate development when the majority of the citizens are left out,” he said and pointed to the region’s longstanding commitment to gender equality through the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.

He added that the region’s youthful demographic profile required deliberate inclusion strategies.

He also stressed the importance of protecting vulnerable groups through SADC PF’s model laws and harmonised legislative frameworks.

“When you look at the scope of our model laws, they in essence are tools that have focused on how we enhance the protection of rights of the vulnerable, who are the women, the children, and persons with disabilities,” he said.

The Director said the Forum’s model laws had become important tools for Member States by helping to bridge gaps in technical capacity, evidence and exposure to international legal trends.

“Model laws have become handy in filling the gap even in terms of technical capacity, evidence, and capturing current trends and emerging issues,” he said.

Kurasha described the forthcoming joint sittings of standing committees as strategic platforms for addressing cross-cutting regional issues collectively rather than through siloed approaches.

“The issues we deal with, while they may be categorised thematically, are cross-cutting,” he said.

Kurasha described standing committees as the “engine room” of the Forum.

“If we consider standing committees to be the engine room of the work that SADC-PF does, we must consider joint standing committees as the collection of those engines into one big functional, effective engine,” he said.

The meetings will also review and validate the draft SADC Model Law on Prison Oversight, which Kurasha described as a key stage in ensuring parliamentary ownership of the law-making process.

He said the validation process gives parliamentarians an opportunity to ensure that the draft law is “accessible”, “usable”, and aligned to SADC realities before adoption by the Plenary Assembly.

Kurasha also highlighted discussions on the development of a Sexual Harassment Policy for the Forum and described it as an important institutional reform aimed at making parliamentary spaces safe and inclusive.

“This is important because it is about creating safe spaces, or parliaments as safe spaces, for women and men to operate optimally,” he said.

The statutory meetings will also elect Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons of Standing Committees for the 2026–2028 term.

Kurasha said the elections are both a constitutional requirement and part of SADC PF’s culture of inclusive leadership rotation among Member States.

“It is SADC-PF’s culture of ensuring that all the countries have equal opportunity to exercise leadership and responsibility in the organs of SADC-PF,” he said.

On implementation of resolutions, Kurasha explained that national parliaments serve as conduits for transmitting regional deliberations into domestic legislative processes.

“The national delegations are the conduit through which we transmit the regional deliberations into national legislative processes,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of civil society organisations, youth groups and disability organisations in the consultative processes of the Forum.

“Our deliberative platforms are incomplete if the stakeholders are not represented,” he said.

Kurasha paid tribute to development partners including GIZ, the European Union, the Government of Sweden and Austrian partners for supporting the Forum’s governance agenda.

“They are partners in development. They are supporting this agenda because it is an agenda that is mutually shared,” he said.

The Standing Committee Sessions officially mark the commencement of the 59th Plenary Assembly process, which will culminate in the Plenary Assembly in Seychelles from 4 to 11 July 2026.

-Moses Magadza is the Media and Communications Manager at then SADC Parliamentary Forum.