Involvement of civil society in the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) EPA states : study

The project objective is to assess CSO participation in the EU-SADC EPA signed in 2016 and offer recommendations to enhance CSO roles. The EPA focuses on trade and economic cooperation. Despite its potential, CSO involvement in the SADC region has been minimal. As a result of the inception phase, which highlighted the lack of progress in CSO inclusion within the EPA's institutional structure and the resistance from certain SADC states to expand CSO participation, the objective evolved to (1) Analyse non-state actor/CSO roles in the EU-SADC EPA and assess their participation in trade and governance at the national level. (2) Offer policy recommendations for the EU-SADC EPA concerning CSO and social partner roles. The report includes three case studies: a. NEDLAC as a gold standard that offers an example for regional CSO engagement b. AGOA as a lesson for the EU's General System of Preferences (GSP) and in developing a simple complaint mechanism. C. CSO experiences with developing the SADC EPA Monitoring & Evaluation Framework.