Development for Peace
Education (DPE) in collaboration with the Lesotho Council of NGOs (LCN)
have organised a one day symposium to honour DPE Sister Veronica
Phafoli under the theme of Visionary Sister Veronica Phafoli in the
times of Poverty Reduction Initiatives, at the Manthabiseng
Convention Centre on the 3rd April, 2006.
In marking the celebration, a policy dialogue on “Is Another Lesotho
Possible: Poverty Reduction in Perspective” will be another theme in
which participants will be given the opportunity to debate the
following key issues. The communities from Seforong, Kanana,
Kuebunyane and Hloahloeng are expected to voice out the concerns and
appreciation the national budget 2006/7 and experiences on the
impact of the poverty in the communities. In addition the key
findings on the Assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)
Priorities study in relation to national budget commissioned by the
LCN and its key advocacy messages arose from the study would be
presented. Further, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is
expected to present on the new challenges facing the Mid Term
Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which they are piloting at the moment.
The participants will
discuss other presentations which includes Poverty and HIV/AIDS:
Challenges facing potential Lesotho HIV/AIDS policy, The Impact of
globalization on women: PRS in perspective. Institutional
requirements for development: PRS in perspective and the Challenge
of globalization on women and youth.
This forum comes at the
time when Civil Society Organisations in Lesotho under the august
leadership of LCN are focusing their efforts towards policy
transformation and implementation in Lesotho with the following
objectives;
- To Improve civil
society pro-poor policy engagement, formulation and influence
including budget formulation, monitoring and expenditure tracking;
- To enhance civil
society capacity in evidence-based advocacy, poverty monitoring
and evaluation, and strategy to tackle thematic issues;
- To develop civil
society linkages with national and regional networks on key PRS
issues such as food security, and promotion of lesson learning and
sharing.
- To develop a country
advocacy strategy on poverty issues.
The dialogue is part of
the Civil Society Support Programme (CSSP) continuous community
participation in the policy debate related to poverty reduction
strategies. It is expected that the dialogue will resulted in
improving more policy understanding in relation to Poverty Reduction
Strategy of which Lesotho is implementing.
Participation will be drawn from Civil Society Organisations,
Community based Organisations, Community Councils, Church
Organisations and the Media.
Thandiwe Solwandle (Ms.)
Lesotho Council of NGOs
Information Officer
Tel: 22317205/22325798
thandiwes@lecongo.org.ls
www.lecongo.org.ls
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