Overview
- Foreign ministers met in Skukuza over 22–24 May and issued an outcome statement that they say will act as a practical roadmap for faster implementation and greater regional coordination.
- The roadmap focuses on five priority areas: financing regional integration and debt management, industrialisation and value chains, infrastructure and free movement, energy and mineral resources, and agriculture and food security.
- Ministers mandated finance ministers to map domestic and regional financing sources, encouraged formation of a regional 'Borrowers Club' to coordinate creditor engagement, and asked energy ministers to explore joint investments such as participation in Angola’s Lobito refinery.
- Delegates proposed concrete steps to boost value chains and industrial jobs, including mineral beneficiation, cross‑border special economic zones, fast‑tracking transport corridors and stronger regional veterinary and agricultural coordination to protect food exports and small farmers.
- Officials said the region can tap pension funds, insurance capital and diaspora savings to fund projects, but turning the roadmap into projects will require stronger regional institutions and coordinated support from partners like the African Development Bank and AUDA‑NEPAD.