The official groundbreaking ceremony for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Fisheries Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Coordination Centre (MCSCC) was held in Maputo, Mozambique on the 22 April 2024. This event symbolised a major turning point for regional fisheries cooperation in the SADC region and a first step in the building of the MCSCC. His Excellency Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, President of the Republic of Mozambique, SADC Deputy Executive Secretary for Regional Integration, Ms. Angéle Makombo N`Tumba alongside Her Excellency Lídia Cardoso, Minister of the Sea, Inland Waters and Fisheries of the Republic of Mozambique, a SADC Secretariat Delegation, and SADC partners were in attendance to witness this auspicious event.

Her Excellency Lídia Cardoso congratulated the SADC Member States on this significant achievement, as it builds on the SADC Common Agenda, will strengthen the Regional Integration Agenda, and looks to accelerate poverty eradication and attain economic and sustainable development goals. It will support the developing of shared policies, regulations, and controls, therefore feeding into SADC integration milestones to develop a free trade area, customs union, and a common market.

In 2017, the SADC Charter Establishing the MCSCC, which provides the legal framework for the establishment and operation of this institution mandated to coordinate monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) in the SADC region was signed by SADC Council of Ministers in Pretoria, South Africa. In 2023, two-thirds of the SADC Member States had signed the Charter for establishing the MCSCC, bringing the Centre into Force. The MCSCC is currently coordinating regional fisheries MCS data and information sharing services and supporting capacity building of national MCS systems, while development of a Regional Register of Fishing Vessel is underway as well as monitoring of fishing vessels, while plans are in the pipeline for coordination of fisheries observers and provision of fisheries law enforcement and legal support services.