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Civil
Society Support Programme |
The Civil Society
Support Programme (CSSP) emerged as a response to the challenges
facing civil society organisations with regard to the fight
against poverty. Civil society organisations have been at the
forefront in this fight though there are other challenges of
which they need to rise above in the next three years.
 The
initiative of the CSSP is aimed at improving the quality of life
of Basotho. This is going to be achieved by diversifying the
efforts of Lesotho and civil society organisations in making
poverty history through lobbying and advocacy for policy reforms
and implementation.
The key project objective is to support the development of a
dynamic and sustainable civil society engagement in monitoring
and shaping the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy
(PRS). The project aims to improve civil society effectiveness
in engaging state policies and also in influencing poverty
programmes through policy analysis and public participation.
This work originates from the key developmental policies, namely
the Lesotho National Vision 2020, the Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper and the Millennium Development Goals. The expected output
is an enhanced civil society organisational development and
institutional capacity in evidence-based advocacy, poverty
monitoring and evaluation on key issues.
The activities below formed part of the yearly planned
activities. The key component areas in this programme are;
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POVERTY MONITORING
- PRS implementation and monitoring |
The objective is to
analyse the national budget for 2004/05 in relation to three PRS
priorities namely, Income Generation and Job Creation; Improve
Food Security and Agriculture; Deepening Democracy, Governance
and Safety and Security.
A consultancy was commissioned to undertake research on how the
Government budget responds to the objectives and strategies of
the national PRS in terms of resource allocations,
disbursements, the actual utilization of public funds and the
possible impact of the budget on the lives of the poor. The
report will be published on-line on completion.
EDUCATION SECTOR AS A PRIORITY IN PRS
The Council has commissioned a consultant to assess and analyse
the National budget of the 2004 /05 fiscal year in relation to
how it addresses access to and the quality of primary and
secondary education as one of the PRS priority. This study is
supported by The Commonwealth Education Fund in Lesotho as a
complimenting partner to Civil Society Support Programme. The
report will be published on-line on completion.
POVERTY MONITORING TOOL
The goal of the monitoring tool is to guide NGOs on their
monitoring exercise in terms of what information they should
collect on how the budget responds to the needs of the poor. The
Council has developed a simple monitoring tool that can be used
by NGOs, Community based organisations and the members of
communities at all levels to express their observations on the
national programmes aimed at reducing poverty and how the
national budget responds to their needs, what they would prefer
to be done to improve their lives in terms of the national
developments, and the distribution and utilization of public
funds.
LCN have also engaged Parliamentarians on Poverty Monitoring and
how is it related to issues of HIV/Aids, Gender and Policy. The
major goal is to collaborate with Lesotho Parliamentary forum as
the overseas of the National budget, in the 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. |
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CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY
BUILDING |
In pursuit of its
mandate to stimulate, promote and support NGOs in their
development efforts, the Lesotho Council of NGOs has found it
necessary to carry out, through a consultancy, a capacity needs
assessment study of NGOs to diagnose and satisfy their own needs
as well as the needs of the society they serve. The Consultancy
objective is to develop a capacity building framework for the
NGO community in Lesotho to respond to new structural and
operational challenges of the LCN Secretariat, Commissions and
the entire NGO community. Also to define and draw up an NGO
sector profile to facilitate their categorization and
classification by sector, with a view of meeting new NGOs and
country development challenges.
The expected outputs from the assessment include training needs
and recommendations on how LCN commissions should be
restructured so that they are responsive to the needs of civil
society organisations as well as a prototype terms of reference
that clearly defines the mandate of commissions, particularly
vis-à-vis the Secretariat. The report will inform how the
intervention of capacity building could be implemented. This
report will be published on-line on completion.
Development of commissions work plans
The objective of this activity is to assist 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.
Redesign LCN Website
The objective for this activity is to establish a robust website
that will generate debate on critical social issues and
facilitate interaction with organisation within and outside the
country. The website will also be expanded to accommodate issues
that arise from the CSSP, progress to date is that the
consultant has resumed working on the website particuly in
mapping out of the website.
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NETWORKING - 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. Regular News and
Issues will be posted on the website on SADC Region networks and
debates. |
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Know-How Fund |
The Civil Society
Support Programme was established to provide a support mechanism
for CSO’s in order to enable effective engagement in poverty
reduction efforts. The know-how Fund is intended to support
Civil Society Organisations to implement activities that are
directly and tangibly have an impact on poverty. This will be
done through administering grants on a competitive basis to a
wide range of activities. The guidelines below are developed in
order to facilitate access funding for Civil Society
Organisations.
The Council has developed simple detailed payment guidelines to
facilitate access to this fund by the NGOs in Lesotho involved
in poverty reduction monitoring programmes. The budget ceiling
for the projects does not exceed the maximum of One hundred and
twenty thousand Maluti (M120, 000.00) per NGO. |
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