Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) chairman in Lesotho, Mr. Sehoai Santho says Africa is doing badly in poverty reduction, in competing in the International arena on trade related matters as well as the high HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Lesotho Council of NGOs organised a one day civil society round table meeting dubbed ‘The Commission for Africa Report: Its Relevance to Lesotho and the Role of Civil Society’ on the 14th February at the Maseru Sun Cabanas. 

It was felt at the meeting that many African countries does not have a clear sense of where they are going.  They also have no strong national development strategies.  According to presenters again, it was felt as if Africa does not potential to be a prosperous continent, through its own resources, democracy, governed by accountable and honest leaders, and driven by smart development programmes.

For years, NGOs and Governments have been quite vocal about what needs to be done to help Africa break the bonds of poverty. Basotho should have monitoring mechanisms in place that will allow them to measure progress at regular intervals.

The objective of the meeting was to contribute to the growing discussion about the need for Africans to monitor the extent to which CFA promises are actually implemented. In this regard, it is the view of  Southern African Regional Poverty Network SARPN that such monitoring should not only apply to the commitments of African governments and those by members of the international community, but also those made by members of civil society on the continent.

The CFA process in Africa took the form of regional consultations in all four geographic regions each being organized by an organization with the appropriate contacts in the region.