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Civil Society Support
Programme - Progress Report |
INTRODUCTION
The key project objective is to build LCN capacity to support
effectively civil society organisations to engage and monitor
poverty reduction efforts in Lesotho under Poverty Reduction
Strategy. This work is aimed on the key developmental policies,
namely Lesotho National Vision 2020, Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper and Millennium Development Goals.
The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the creation of
a dynamic Civil Society movement that is able to engage and monitor
poverty reduction strategy, national budgeting exercise and
assessing tangible impacts at district and local level. The purpose
of Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP) is to support the
development of a dynamic and sustainable civil society organisations’
engagement in monitoring and shaping the Poverty Reduction Strategy
implementation.
It is expected that a dynamic civil society organisations will be
have ability to research, analyse poverty issues and present such
findings and recommendations to the government and other
stakeholders. It is in this context where government and civil
society organisations relations are important.
This report outlines the progress on the actual implementation of
activities to date against the planned activities under each
objective or component of the programme to achieve the intended
goals. The following are the Major project components:
1. Poverty Monitoring
2. Civil Society Organisations capacity building
3. Organisational Development
4. Networking
5. Project Disbursement
PROGRESS TOWARDS GOALS
1. POVERTY MONITORING
The poverty monitoring activities are aimed at influencing pro-poor
analysis as evidenced by the recommendations made to government and
other oversight bodies. The output for this activity area is the
improved civil society pro-poor policy engagement, formulation,
monitoring and expenditure tracking. The activities undertaken
towards this output are the following:-
• A analysis study of Poverty Reduction Strategy priority the
Education Sector in relation to national budget
• Training Of NGOs in Poverty Monitoring and Budget Tracking
• Engaging Districts Development committees
• Publicity and Documentation
• Engaging Parliamentarians in Poverty Monitoring
• Public hearings on Poverty Indicators
1.1 A analysis study of Poverty Reduction Strategy priority the
Education Sector in relation to national budget
The third draft report of the study that is assessing the quality
and access of primary and secondary education in relation to the
national budget of 2004/05 fiscal year in was presented to the forum
of NGO directors and inputs were made that would lead to the
finalization of the study. The challenge is that the study does not
tangeable issues that NGOs could identify for advocacy especially
the impact or expenditures of the budget in relation to Education
sector.
1.2 Training Of NGOs in Poverty Monitoring and Budget Tracking
Two training workshops were held for Civil Society Organisations on
poverty monitoring and public expenditure monitoring. The first
training was for two LCN commissions and the second was for other
NGOs that are not LCN members and members. The organisations were
equipped with necessary skills for understanding the concepts of
national budget, legal, political and administrative process of the
budget and linking PRS and the national budget.
The workshops covered the following areas:
• Monitoring the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy;
• Enhancing civil society organisations understanding on budget
tracking;
• Engagement in pro-poor policy analysis through advocacy and
lobbying
1.3 Engaging Districts Development committees
There were three meetings that were held at Quthing, Berea and
Mohale`s hoek districts with the NGOs with some operations on the
ground and the Governments department that composes the district
planning unit. The out put for the meeting was that at Mohale`s hoek
the Government is positive to have NGO representation at the
District planning Unit while at Quthing the Government feel they
could engage NGOs through plenary sessions and workshops since
according to the Local Government Act they should be represented at
the District Development Coordinating Committee. The Challenge is
that the Committee is not in place but operations are progressing.
At Berea it was apparent that NGOs needs to be educated about the
Local Government Concept in order to enhance collaboration with
community councils in community development. The GOL promised to
create monthly platforms where stakeholders could share pertinent
issues from community and districts levels.
1.4 Publicity and Documentation
The council have developed the new LCN brochure. The brochure
requires the layout design then it would be ready for printing. Also
from the three PRS priorities study advocacy messages have been
drawn and compiled into some simple flyers that need to be completed
for information dissemination. LCN has developed the Policy training
guide that will be used by NGOs and the public to understand the
Policy arena and budget process in Lesotho. Moreover, the council
produces the NGO quarterly news letter on the Civil society issues.
1.5 Engaging Parliamentarians in Poverty Monitoring
LCN organised one forum with the Public accounts Committee with the
major goal to continue the collaboration with Lesotho Parliamentary
forum because they are the oversight for the National budget and
formulation of policy at national level. Also to provide them with
the understanding and appreciation of the role of LCN and CSOs in
monitoring the state performance in relation to the impact of budget
tracking process against the planned strategies for implementation
of PRS priorities.
PAC indicated its operations, and highlighted the challenges that
the committee is facing to effectively carryout their mandates.
These include the following, the Committees is under resourced with
both technical supported and resources, lack of investigating power
after the recommendations on the audit report, to the line
Ministries and also there is a felt need that the MPs should be
trained in the Budget process. The CSOs also shared the findings of
the three PRS assessment in relation to the 2004/05 national budget
and the analysis of the 2006/07 national budget.
The way forward was that LCN should draft the act that empowers the
CSOs to have some legitimacy on the Government that needs to be
passed in Parliament through PAC since CSO are registered under the
general Society s` act. Also LCN through its information unit should
publicize the work of PAC and the Challenges they are facing but the
write ups should be sent to PAC for quality assurance.
1.6 Policy dialogues/Public hearings on Poverty Indicators
LCN through the member organisations organised two Policy dialogues
that focused on PRS as the national Policy document that embodies
the needs of the people. The main goal is to improve the
effectiveness and efficacy of NGOs in influencing pro-poor national
policy by linking the community people on issues that affect their
lives with Policy makers and the service providers from the CSOs and
the Government sites. There were themes developed for each forum and
a number of PRS priorities selected that created some debate between
the Government and CSOs, and from the people’s views on how do
poverty trends affect their lives.
The policy dialogues were framed in the context of different themes
for the purpose of adaptability and contextualisation. Among the
themes developed, the following can be mentioned; Is another Lesotho
possible: PRS in perspective, Public dialogue on Lesotho Poverty
Reduction Strategy: what are the gains for rural communities and a
number of PRS priorities selected with some thematic topics that
created some debate between the Government and communities. Also
these forums served as strategic meetings in which the findings on
three priorities were shared with the CSO’s, Local Authorities,
Government and communities.
As results of these dialogues managed by the NGOs, efforts are being
made to continue to engage line Ministries on their progress to
implement PRS.
The key issues raised by the communities that they would like the
budget to address include the following; the need for the
Agricultural extension Officers to visit and supervise farmers, the
establishment of the market place for local products that include
clay and thatch products, the development of some nature reserve
particularly caves and the protection of natural plants that could
attract tourists and create employment opportunities for community
people, construction of roads that link communities to access basic
needs and services that include health care centres, schools and
markets through bridges.
The communities have benefited more on having the knowledge of
organisations to work with and to whom to deal with in the local
authorities. This includes having an understanding and appreciation
of organisations’ work such as Rural Self-Help Development
Association, Mine workers Development Agency and Development for
Peace Education, and local government structures working on the
service delivery.
Finally policy dialogues had reached conclusion that in principle
Community Councils should report about the successes of community
development both led by Government agencies and Non Governmental
organizations as an indication that there is some collaboration with
stakeholders for the benefit of the poor.
2. CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING
The objective of Civil Society Capacity Building is to improve and
strengthen LCN membership and their activities to become
organisationally and financial stable. This would be evidenced by
the reputation and standing of Civil Society in Lesotho, activities
of the CSO would be strengthen to diversify and increase the size of
the donor base through the following activities:
• Organisational and Institutional strengthening of 40 Local CSOs
• Strengthen and improve skills of CSOs in fundraising and resource
mobilisation
• Training of NGOs on Policy Research and Analysis
2.1 Organisational and Institutional strengthening of 40 Local CSOs
In pursuit of its mandate to stimulate, promote and support NGO’s in
their development efforts, the Lesotho Council of NGO’s has carried
out, through a consultancy, the capacity needs assessment study for
NGOs.
The identified common needs are Advocacy and Lobbying, Resource
Mobilization, Policy analysis, Financial Management, Monitoring and
evaluation, Project Management. The process of engaging the training
institute (IDM) has begun and Seven NGOs have been trained on
Resource Mobilisation to date. Other trainings are to follow
although the process at IDM requires more time since the systems
requires them to write a proposal upon a submission of request.
However there is another project that supplements CSSP on NGO
capacity building.
2.2 Strengthen and improve skills of CSOs in fundraising and
resource mobilisation
LCN with collaboration with member NGOs have developed five
proposals in different areas. They are submitted to different donors
that have some focus in Lesotho and once approved a number of
organisations would benefit from such support.
Moreover, the concept of Project Idea mobilisation was introduced to
the following organisations Khathang Tema Baitsukuli, CESA and
Lesotho Homemakers with the aim to build their capacity in resource
mobilisation and to generate project ideas. Lesotho Homemakers
Association has developed two project proposals as a result of this
exercise and they have been submitted to the American Embassy and to
the Netherlands embassy. While the other, two organisations are in
the process of developing capacity building project proposals for
their organisations.
2.3 Training of NGOs in Policy Research and analysis
The main objective lies within the fact that the mandate of Civil
society Organisations is to monitor the state performance in policy
formulation and implementation, therefore they require skills in
policy analysis that would enable them to have some evidence based
research in terms of facts on national policies through policy
research to engage the Policy makers to align policies in pro-poor
strategy to respond to the needs of the marginalised in society.
The Council is at the tendering process to identify the training
institute that is competent on the subject and could provide some
accreditation. The challenge is that local institutions are not
accredited on the subject and this calls for international
institutions
3. ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The objective of organisational development is to improve and
strengthen LCN secretariat and LCN commissions through staff
trainings, development of commission workplans, identification of
investment opportunities for CSOs and the creation of forums for
CSOs to exchange views on challenges facing Lesotho’s CSOs.
This would be evidenced by the reputation and standing of Civil
Society in Lesotho, activities of the CSO would be strengthening
through the following activities:
• Strengthen LCN Commissions
• Staff development
3.1 Strengthen LCN Commissions
The planning sessions for the three commissions were held. The
process have assisted NGOs to collectively develop common programmes
and projects within the commissions as well as to draw terms of
reference and to develop a joint work plan for the commission. This
would facilitate the fundraising process and the commissions`
engagement in shaping the formulation of national policies as well
as the monitoring the implementation of the national budget since
they are the voice of the voiceless. The challenge is to attract
more funding for commission plans by developing sound programmes
that would be implemented by NGOs.
3.2 Staff Development
Two staff members participated in "Understanding Poverty in Southern
Africa" training from the 21st - 23rd August 2006. The objective was
to provide participants with an understanding of poverty, its nature
and dimensions, measurement and policy processes related to
resolving poverty crisis in Southern Africa.
One staff also participated in Facilitation and Communications
Skills Workshop organised by InWent. The objective was to equip
participants with skills in facilitation using the Local Economic
Development Approach
4. NETWORKING
Networking is the nerve of development that support the sharing of
experiences through the engagement of a strong Civil society
linkages with national and regional networks in order to promote
lesson learning and sharing. This should be achieved by the
implementation of the following activities
• Networking with national and regional organisations
4.1 Networking with national and regional organisations
The objective is to link with and participate in SADC CSOs forums,
to share best practices and experiences in the region on issues of
CSOs, Poverty Reduction Monitoring Programmes, as well as National
Policy analysis and dialogue.
The Council undertook a donor networking trip to Pretoria. The
purpose of the trip was to have a round table meeting with donors in
South Africa. The round table meeting was used as a platform for the
NGOs with the leadership of LCN to understand and appreciate the
work of the donors and to discuss developmental challenges that face
Lesotho with the view to forge partnerships in addressing such
problems. The other reason for the meeting was to influence the
strategies that the donors will develop in the coming years with
reference to the current problems that Lesotho face.
The trip resulted in meeting six embassies in Pretoria, the Chad
Republic Embassy, Australian Embassy, Finland Embassy and
Netherlands Embassy. The above listed embassies have programmes in
Lesotho and project proposals are being developed for submission to
them. While Norwegian embassy and Austrian Embassy do not have any
specific programmes in Lesotho.
LCN hosted the SADC NGOs forum in August 2006, Organisations that
have similar programmes like CSSP shared experiences in terms of
achievements and challenges in Poverty Monitoring. It was apparent
that in the region access to information pertaining public
expenditure is one of the major challenges that face the Civil
Society Organisations in their endeavour on monitoring the state
performance.
5. PROJECT DISBURSEMENT
The know-how fund has been established for the three years of the
life span of the project. After the provision of the capacity
building activities and provision of other skills under the project,
NGOs will be expected to perform the activities practically. The
organisations are to apply for this fund to demonstrate on different
fields.
LCN has developed guidelines that would facilitate access to the
fund based on the recommendations from the CSSP review report that
stipulates that the fund should be open to other activities other
than the originally planned activities according to the project
design. Also the process of establishing the management committee
for the know how fund has begun since the secretariat should
administered the fund but the process of proposals appraisals be
carried by an independed body.
The challenge might be that the expectations of NGOs will be raised
with the limited fund to support very few NGOs,because there is
still a short fall in the project budget that contributes to the
know how fund.
6. CONCLUSION
The project has undergone a midterm review that stipulated
challenges and recommendations in all aspects of the project. It is
therefore hoped that this would strengthen the level of
implementation and to further consider other issues that were not in
the CSSP formulation if they contribute to the objectives of the
project. However, other challenges need to be addressed in the
longer term.
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