We have held a range of interviews and one-to-one meetings with private sector and civil society organisations and other key stakeholders, both in the EU and the six SADC EPA states (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa). A first mission to Botswana, Namibia and South Africa took place in June 2023, with Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique visited in August and September 2023; another field trip to the SADC EPA countries took place in October and November 2023.

In addition, an online public consultation was conducted on the EUSurvey platform from July to November 2023.

Civil society dialogue (CSD) meetings organised by DG Trade are regular meetings where civil society and the Commission discuss about the EU’s trade policy. Two such meetings were devoted to discuss the evaluation:

• A presentation and discussion of the draft evaluation methodology, feeding into the inception report. This meeting took place on 31 May 2023, in virtual form (more information); and
• A presentation and discussion of the draft final evaluation report, to be reflected in the final report. This meeting was held online on 11 July 2024 (more information)

For further details please consult DG Trade’s CSD website.

Workshops were held in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa (with participation of stakeholders from Eswatini and Lesotho) to present and discuss the preliminary analysis conducted to date and collect additional information from national interest groups. These workshops took place in October/November 2023. Specifically:

• Mozambique: Maputo, 26 October 2023. More information
• South Africa (also covering Eswatini and Lesotho): Sandton, Gauteng, 08 November 2023. More information
• Namibia: Windhoek, 16 November 2023. More information
• Botswana: Gaborone, 28 November 2023. More information