The SG and her team also met with the NED team lead by Eric Robinson, the Deputy Director Africa Programme, who commended SADC PF for the great work it was doing to promote democracy in the SADC region. The two institutions agreed to explore avenues of collaboration through partnerships since NED cannot do direct funding to SADC PF.

The SG’s delegation also met with officials from the US State Department who commended SADC PF for its leadership role in promoting parliamentary democracy. They also highlighted common areas of interest including peace and security, gender equality, access to health services, anti-corruption, elections and climate change adaptation in particular clean energy transition.