Simon Vilikazi represented EJN at the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Social Forum held in Manzini, Swaziland from the 16th – 18th September 2008. The forum was organised by the Southern Africa People’s Solidarity Network (SAPSN) in partnership with the Coalition of Allied Non-government Organisations (CANGO) (Swaziland).

The forum was attended by civil society organisations (CSOs) representing gender, youth, labour, health, good-governance, trade, human rights, privatisation and other sectors. The EJN represented all faith-based organisations of the SADC region, and was attended by more than 400 delegates.

The main objectives of the forum were as follows:

• To bring all civil society organisations (CSOs) together to plan for a way forward on issues of poverty, democracy, trade, food security, gender, HIV/AIDS that characterise the entire SADC region.
• To enable all SADC civil society organisations to share experiences and challenges on their work and to contribute in the development of resolutions of the forum.
• To enable all participating organisations to make recommendations on future campaigns the CSOs should embark on in the region.

As part of the resolutions of the social forum, it was resolved that members of the civil society will work together towards achieving the following goals:

• Addressing the political leadership conflict of Zimbabwe.
• Democratisation and the unbanning of political parties in Swaziland.
• Make SADC states governments to work with civil society organisations in eradicating poverty and hunger and to ensure that there is food security and sovereignty for all people of the SADC region.
• Eradication of xenophobia in the region.
• Promote alternatives to neo-liberalism in Southern Africa (ANSA)
• Deal with challenges of HIV/AIDS facing the people of the region.
• Promote gender equality in all SADC countries.
• Stop privatisation of water and land resources in all countries of the region.
• Discourage SADC region countries from signing economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU)
• Promote free movement of people in the region.
• Open education and employment opportunities for the youth of the region.

It was resolved that all members of the CSOs will work together in joint regional campaigns that will be launched in order to achieve the above resolutions of the social forum.