The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat launched its new website www.sadc.int to the public on Monday December 03, 2012 at a function which was held at the SADC Secretariat Head Office in Gaborone Botswana.
The internet is a rapidly evolving technology, and to keep up with it as well as to remain relevant, SADC saw the need to revamp its website. The new website was launched under the banner ‘Our Face to the World” and is intended to be more outwardly focused while engaging relevant stakeholders in SADC Member States. Officially launching the new SADC website, SADC Executive Secretary Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomão said it the SADC website must be continuously maintained and information updated. He called on all the originators of information at the Secretariat to feed it to those who are responsible for managing the website content to ensure that it will not go stale to need another re-launch a few years down the lane.
Dr Salomão expressed his sincerest gratitude to the government of Germany with whose support the website was revamped as a joint effort between SADC and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ). He lauded the all-inclusive website revamping process that allowed all SADC staff Secretariat staff to participate, spearheaded by the SADC Public Relations (PR), and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Units under the leadership of Ms Emilie Ayaza Mushobekwa, SADC Deputy Executive Secretary for Finance & Administration and support from GIZ and Hatfield Consultants, which yielded the new world-class design and content.
Giving an overview on the new website at the launch, Ms Mushobekwa said that the new website was a necessity as it plays an integral role in SADC’s aspirations of becoming a world class organisation. “Realising the importance of becoming a world-class organisation, the SADC Secretariat included a benchmarking exercise as part of the review process. This exercise ranked the old SADC website and those of similar organisations such as the African Union and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa against good website practices. The results highlighted areas that needed most attention and the amount of effort needed to move ahead of the pack,” she said. Furthermore the website contains valuable information about institutional set-up, priorities of regional integration and common projects as well as progress and impact made by all 15 Member States and relevant stakeholders.
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