SADC’s average score for regional integration is quite low. Nine of SADC’s 16 members perform around the mid-point. SADC has three high performers, with South Africa leading comfortably.
SADC’s average score are most pulled down by a gap in regional infrastructure. South Africa achieves a near-perfect score, but the next two performers, Seychelles and Mauritius, score far below and the bottom five performers (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, and Tanzania) score near zero. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania do better on productive integration, where they fall into the average zone, but SADC’s average score for productive integration is not much better than for integrated infrastructure.
SADC’s country rankings appear to reflect the current state of socioeconomic integration in the community, where the best-performing countries have flourishing economies and enjoy a relatively good standard of living. SADC’s strength lies in the free movement of people.
ARII measures regional integration in SADC along five dimensions. These dimensions use sixteen indicators to determine the extent to which SADC members are integrated within their region.
The more outward a dimension stretches, the more integrated SADC is on that dimension. Scores are calculated on a scale of 0 (not at all integrated) to 1 (entirely integrated).
This chart shows how each country in SADC performs on the five dimensions of regional integration. Click the inner segments of the bars to see each country’s score.