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International Relations
Africa faces its own unique gambling regulatory challenges which are better dealt with on a continental level. To tackle these challenges, the Board was instrumental in forming the Gambling Regulators Africa Forum (GRAF). GRAF was launched in February 2003 and held its first Annual General Meeting in Malawi in October 2003. GRAF is governed and operated in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Membership of GRAF is limited to national gambling regulators and the MoU stipulates, among other things, that any issues shall be resolved by consensus.
The main objectives of GRAF are the following:
- To provide a forum in which members can meet to exchange views and information and discuss policy on gaming matters
- To liaise with any foreign or international body having any objectives similar to the objectives of the forum
- To serve as a focal point for enquiries by authorities and international organisations with similar or related objectives
- To keep gambling crime-free
- To co-operate on probity and information sharing
- To protect consumers and maintain fairness or equity of the games
- To promote responsible gambling
- To ensure that African nationals benefit visibly from gambling
- To promote harmonisation and mutual recognition of standards
- To contribute towards the enhancement of economic development.
At the conference which was held in Gaborone, Botswana, in October 2005, the Board was appointed as the permanent secretariat of GRAF. This is in line with the former President Thabo Mbeki’s call for the African Renaissance and falls within the bigger picture of the New Partnership for Africa's Development initiative (NEPAD)
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