Lesotho Council of NGOs is
making preparations for its poverty march that is aimed at
sensitizing people on poverty related issues as well as raising
awareness on existing policies and laws.
The match will be led by NGOs from a wide range of sectors. Each
priority of the Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) will be
highlighted and engaged during the process. The route is between
Mohale’s Hoek CBD to Ha Makhakhe in Mafeteng district. These cuts
across two districts and villages are drawn from at least 5
constituencies. The rational behind choosing these areas has been
driven by the fact that the researchers have shown that southern
districts are the ones that are most poverty stricken in Lesotho.
Background
According to international rankings, Lesotho falls amongst the fifty
poorest countries of the world. The United Nations Human Development
Report ranked Lesotho 137 out of 175 member states in 2003. National
statistics show that nearly two thirds of the population lives below
the poverty line and that inequality levels are unacceptably high.
Since independence, Lesotho has employed National Development Plans
to articulate its national policies. The aim of these plans has
consistently been to stimulate economic growth and improve the
livelihoods of Basotho. However, despite the realisation of
relatively high average annual growth rates, that exceeded an
average of 4% between 1982 and 2002, the levels poverty has
continued to increase. The reason is that although poverty reduction
has been one of the priority objectives, it has not been accompanied
by comprehensive, focused and prioritised strategies and programmes
for pro-poor growth. The failure to reduce poverty meaningfully
continues to challenge the Government and its development partners
and has motivated all stakeholders to contribute to the formulation
of Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS).
Poverty Reduction Strategy is a three-year medium term development
framework (2004/05 – 2006/07) for Lesotho. It outlines national
priorities and strategies for promoting economic growth and reducing
poverty. PRS provides a synopsis of how the GOL will focus its
efforts to reduce poverty. The PRS formulation process has
identified eight priority areas and three critical crosscutting
issues: 1) Create Employment, 2) Improvement of Agricultural
Production and Food Security, 3) Development of Infrastructure, 4)
Deepening Democracy, Governance, Safety and Security, 5) Improvement
of Quality and Access to Education, 6) Improvement of Access to
Health Care and Social Welfare, 7) Management and Conservation of
the Environment and 8) Improvement of Public Service Delivery.
Crosscutting issues are: Combating HIV and Aids and Gender, Youth
and Children.
The Government of Lesotho (GOL) has committed itself to implement
the Poverty Reduction Strategy in a partnership that involves
communities, civil society, private sector and development partners.
Poverty Reduction strategy has been developed through collective
efforts and must therefore be implemented together to turn it into a
cornerstone for development investment in the Mountain Kingdom. LCN
member organisations have therefore found it crucial to engage in
Poverty Match as a way of reducing poverty in Lesotho. Each of the
member organisations of LCN will single out any of the key PRS
priorities that it will sensitize and educate the selected
population on.
Objectives of Poverty Match
i. To sensitize people
around selected areas on poverty related issues.
ii. To develop campaign strategies to fight poverty that will
include issues of environment, food security, democracy and many
others.
iii. To assist poor communities to demand their rights
iv. To raise awareness on existing policies and laws (labour laws,
gender, youth and children)
v. To facilitate engagement of government to respond to the needs of
the poor
vi. To advocate for change on service delivery and policy
formulations
vii. To research on poverty indicators in communities
viii. To promote the culture of accountability by the Government to
the poor by linking communalities with line Ministries
ix. To disseminate information on the mandate of oversight
institutions
Highlights of major activities
a) Route Mapping
b) Meet participant NGOs
c) Finalise Memorandum of Understanding
d) Commission a consultancy to track Lesotho’s Economic background
prior and post independence
e) Negotiate with Ministry of Agriculture on Bee Keeping and trees
f) Train people on poverty and food security
g) Develop advocacy messages into pamphlets
During the event, the matchers will rest in some villages along the
route. These villages will be marked as media spots. The media spots
will also be areas whereby matchers will engage in community work
such as tree planting, bee keeping and many others. In these
particular cases the responsibility of care for bees and trees will
be entrusted with community councils with bees and fruit trees. On
the final day Public Institutions will be called to make
interactions with communities.
Participating Organisations
a) Development for
Peace Education (DPE)
b) Durham Link
c) Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)
d) Lesotho Association for Non-Formal Education (LANFE)
e) Lesotho Clothing Allied Workers Union (LECAWU)
f) Lesotho Young Christian Students (LYCS)
g) Lesotho Youth Federation (LYF)
h) Transformation Resource Centre (TRC)
i) Patriot Vision in Action (PAVA)
j) Women In Law in Southern Africa (WILSA)
k) Highlands Church Group (HCG)
l) Rural Self-help Development Association (RSDA)
Monitoring and evaluation
The best objectives in
the world can only achieve the desired outputs and impacts if the
project can be effectively managed. In pursuit of this therefore,
after poverty match periodic monitoring and evaluation processes
will be carried out on a quarterly basis at the areas where trees
and bees were planted. This process is aimed at monitoring and
assessing the progress of implemented activities such as tree
planting and bee keeping.
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