There has been a tendency to do more on the operational level within the  Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) defence forces, but there is now a need to address other issues like gender matters and the prevention of AIDS within the various forces.

The Chief of Staff of Seychelles People's Defence Forces (SPDF), Colonel Leopold Payet, said on Thursday January 30,  at the Berjaya Mahe Beach Hotel, where he officially opened a one-day meeting of the Interstate Defence and Security Committee's (ISDSC) working group.

"The importance of harmonising training programmes, the exchange of professional cadres also needs to be addressed," Colonel Payet said, expressing confidence that with the right approach and effective exchange of information, the region's respective armed forces would in future be able to access expertise within the region, "enabling cost-effective human resource development".

Noting that the meeting's recommendations would go a long way in influencing personnel policy in the various SADC member countries in due course, Mr Payet called on the 15 participants, who came from Botswana, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Tanzania to ponder over the pertinent issues and make appropriate recommendations.

Tanzania's Major General Francis Louis, who chaired the meeting, told Nation that the delegates had proposed ways and means of sustaining the SADC peacekeeping training centre in Zimbabwe which was formerly being funded by the Danish Government.

"This is a regional centre, and the onus of maintaining it therefore lies on all of us," Major General Louis said.

The chairman, who is also Tanzania's People's Defence Forces chief of personnel said  that the different countries had some very good training facilities, and that the meeting explored how SADC members could use each others' facilities.

"We also examined the modus operandi of the group's secretariat with a view to making it more efficient," Major General Louis said, noting that more representatives would have been expected at the annual group's meeting, which he was chairing for the second year running.

"We also hope to see the chairmanship revolve," he said, noting that the venue itself for the meeting, held in Tanzania last year, had changed.

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