Knowledge management and economic integration in Southern Africa: unpacking the contribution of a regional spatial perspective in building regional competitiveness and prosperity

Abstract

This paper reviews the southern African region’s economic integration and knowledge management terrain from a spatial perspective. Its purpose is to generate insights relating to the role that space and spatial structure play in determining equity and efficiency outcomes with a view to fostering sustainable growth and pro-poor development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. It is also intended to spark debate within the region that seeks to critically question the regional body’s assumptions as they relate to the current regional development trajectory in the context of a globalised world. The paper interrogates SADC spatial development frameworks and initiatives with a view to speculating on their capacity to respond to regional integration. The overwhelming view is that SADC is far from being spatially integrated, and necessarily, development outcomes and impacts are therefore not uniform throughout the SADC regional terrain. The paper thus calls for the establishment of a SADC spatial planning office under-girded by a southern African spatial development perspective protocol. The office could become a fountain of enhanced spatial knowledge management and a platform for generating economic integration intervention levers for multi-level governance, multi-level investment and funding. The paper argues that the implementation of such a recommendation could indeed assist in leveraging and unlocking SADC’s substantial endowments with a view to realizing its full development potential and agenda.