SADC People's Summit

The SADC People’s Summit is a historic annual gathering of social movements and progressive groups from Southern Africa aimed at enhancing solidarity and

collective action towards a just, peaceful, and prosperous region for all. It is usually held at the same time and in the same country as the annual SADC Heads of States and Government. This gives the people an important opportunity not only to lobby SADC leaders but also to raise popular awareness and political pressures for SADC leaders to consider the demands and recommendations of the poor and marginalized. An inclusive Local Organizing Committee of CSOs from the host country is responsible for convening and coordinating Summit activities as well as to sustain the pressure on the incoming Chair of SADC post the People’s Summit. TSHOTA (the Angolan Alternative Mining Indaba) will spearhead SADC People’s Summit processes in 2023 as Chair of the Angola Local Organizing Committee taking over from the Southern African Resource Watch (SARW) who led the 2022 processes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 2023 SADC People’s Summit will run under the theme ‘Justice – Meaningful Participation – Inclusion.’ This theme reflects SADC people’s shared aspirations for justice particularly in the areas of debt bondage, unfair taxation, and the transition towards a climate secure future. It also underscores the concern with growing repression, authoritarianism and shrinking civic space in the Region. Lastly the theme recalls the desire for the voices and aspirations of poor and marginalized groups to be centered within regional political, social, economic, and cultural processes as a matter of justice.