The Southern African Development Community (SADC) collaborates with bilateral and multilateral International Cooperating Partners (ICPs), as well as other organisations that provide development assistance to SADC, to facilitate mobilisation of resources for the attainment of the SADC’s regional integration and poverty reduction priorities. The partnership assists SADC to deliver specifically on the implementation of the Region’s two primary key strategies:
- The Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).
- The Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organ (SIPO).
ICP support to SADC is guided by a framework of cooperation referred to as the "Windhoek Declaration on a New Partnership between the Southern African Development Community and the International Cooperating Partners", adopted in Windhoek, Namibia, in April 2006.
This declaration is based largely on the five key principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, namely:
- Ownership,
- Alignment,
- Harmonisation
- Managing for Results and
- Mutual Accountability.
The Windhoek Declaration is the main framework articulating strategic areas of cooperation between SADC and the ICPs and setting the ground for ICPs support to the SADCCommon Agenda.