Transnational organised crime (TOC) constitutes a major threat to regional peace, security, stability, governance and development in Southern Africa. Over the past decades, the region has witnessed a significant increase in organised crime, which has expanded opportunities for highly organised and rapacious criminal networks and organisations with debilitating consequences across the region. Crimes such as drug trafficking, illicit financial flows, wildlife crime, human trafficking/smuggling, vehicle hijacking and trafficking, illegal firearms trade, corruption, money laundering, financing of terrorism, illicit exploitation of natural resources, trafficking in counterfeits and contrabands of various types (cigarettes, clothing, pharmaceuticals, etc), and cybercrime, continue to be major obstacles to regional stability, governance and development by exacerbating violent conflicts, terrorism, violent extremism and gender-based violence.

Despite several measures adopted by the Southern African Development Community since the 1990s to tackle these crimes through a concerted approach, the region remains host to numerous criminal markets, which attract both local and international criminal groups. The continued fragility and declining resilience of the region, remains a serious concern for SADC.

This Strategy aims to reinvigorate and operationalise a concerted regional framework to preventing and combating transnational, serious and organised crimes, and to mitigate their impacts on population and the economy of the region. It focuses on promoting and strengthening national and regional resilience against TOC through a robust and effective rule of law framework; strong governance based on democratic practices, inclusive and equitable policies; a strong culture of implementation of national, regional and international instruments on matters relating to organised crime. It is based on a theory of change that emphasizes the need for a change in the perception and greater understanding of organized crime in Southern Africa, and action in seven priority areas, to achieve its objectives and strategic vision of a united and resilient SADC region free of TOC, in which peace, security, democracy and development flourish .