Project Background and context
The project “Promoting intra-party democracy in
Lesotho” was funded by the Open Society Initiative
of Southern Africa (OSISA), and it was jointly implemented
by the Lesotho Council of NGOs (LCN) and the Election
Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) as the implementing
partners. The project came up as a result of realizing that
Lesotho’s democracy was not growing as would be expected.
This was attributable to factors such as intra party
conflicts and lack of acceptable conflict resolution
mechanisms, lack of understanding on political parties and
their role in governance, lack of acceptable leadership
skills, overlooking the significance of gender equality,
where women are allowed adequate space to participate and
lastly, failure to employ fruitful outreach strategies.
The project therefore came into being as a way of addressing
the above mentioned problems, as well as to facilitate civil
society organizations’ contribution in strengthening
democracy in Lesotho. The purpose of the project was to
complement the work that has been done by both implementing
organizations in strengthening democracy and democratic
processed in Lesotho. This was a one - year joint project
aimed at strengthening political parties and to capacitate
them on democratic principles. The project was implemented
in the 10 districts of Lesotho namely; Maseru, Mafeteng,
Leribe, Mokhotlong, Thaba-Tseka, Mohale’sHoek, Quthing,
Qacha’s nek, Butha- Buthe and Berea, from June 2008 to April
2009.
Objectives
The goal of the project was to help strengthen intra-party
democracy in Lesotho. The main objectives of the project
were as follows:
- Capacity building for political parties in gender
representation, intra- party democracy and conflict
management, outreach activities and leadership
- To promote dialogue within parties in order to
manage internal tensions.
Project Components
- Gender equality
- Elections
- Leadership in political parties
- Accountability
- Conflict management and resolution
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