(a) Social, economic and political

In terms of the constitution, Lesotho is a multi-party democracy. However, in practice, the country is a monarchy, which over the past decade, has been characterised by extreme political fragmentation.

A revised electoral system combining proportional representation and first-past-the-post model was used in the April 2002 election, which passed off peacefully.

Genuine multiparty democracy is needed but paradoxically small, weak political parties are beginning to mushroom.

The recent local government elections in April went fairly smoothly but more needs to be done about better representation of women and rural areas.

Rule of Law is weak and judiciary is not entirely independent.

A gulf exists between those in government and power and the rest of society and civil society organisations.

There is a proliferation of Northern donors and technocratic NGOs and the field is very bureaucracy-laden and linked with government, hence not very independent. Consequently, CSOs are weak and there is a need for a strong, technically and independent NGO sector.

Lesotho is a landlocked country mainly dependent on the South African economy for most of its trade, aid and remittances through labour mobility.

The majority of Basotho work in South African mining industry. The fall in the price of gold led to many being retrenched. Many workers come home very sick due to asbestos and HIV/Aids, and live a short and miserable life.

HIV/Aids continue to ravage the country causing untold damage to the society. The Global Fund on Aids has approved a $ 34 million grant to Lesotho.

Local government services are collapsing and many peri-urban areas face challenges of uneven and chaotic land use planning, pollution and environmental degradation.

The Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) have been re-negotiated to 2008. It allows for Lesotho to export textiles duty-free into the United States market. Many Asian owned firms have benefited in a context of sweatshop working conditions that violate labour, gender and safety standards.

There is a notable level of farm workers exploitation with many cases of low wages and racism.

Youth unemployment is high with a potential to destabilise a fragile society where little opportunity exists.

The mega $10 billion Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is a major dam that benefits mainly urban South African’s in Gauteng and primarily white farmers in SA receive subsidised water. Many Basotho have been displaced and the compensation process has been fraught with incompetence and corruption. Lesotho is also faced with having to repay the debt incurred as a result of the project.

Corruption has been the key focus of the project with the erstwhile project manager of LHWP now in jail because of over $7 million he received in bribes.

Many social justice groups in the North dominate the advocacy work around these issues and there is a need for Lesotho based organisations to pursue and define their own advocacy responses.

The proliferation of South African corporate, mining, hotel, financial, retail, technological companies dominates the economy and market in Lesotho.

Lesotho’s human rights record is generally good, although this has been threatened by the late 1990s’ political instability in the country.

Women have a low social status and continue to be disadvantaged by discriminatory laws and new leaders such as the speaker in Parliament, Motsamai are injecting new confidence for the women’s movement.

Sexual and other abuse of children particularly orphans and street children are on the increase.

Civil society is generally weak, but there are encouraging signs of new forms of economic/environmental justice advocacy, particularly around the mining and the Lesotho dam displacements and environmental degradation.

(b) Media, Freedom of Expression and Information & Communication Technologies

Most of the laws governing the media are archaic and restrict both freedoms of expression and the public’s access to information.

The Telecommunications Authority Act of 2000 established a new body to regulate the communications sector. However, the board of this regulator is made up of representatives of government ministries and cannot be said to be even remotely independent. Furthermore, the Act fails to address the editorial and operational independence of the national broadcaster, the Lesotho Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), which remains a de facto department within the ministry of information.

The weaknesses in the legislative framework, combined with media workers’ lack of professionalism, inhibit the independence, viability and development of Lesotho’s media. The media are divided and tend to be highly factionalised, with the result that media coverage tends to be obsessed with politics at the expense of less partisan development issues.

Civil defamation is a popular recourse for those who feel they have been maligned by the media; this trend reflects both the lack of professionalism within the media, and the lack of tolerance of media criticism by prominent people.

Lesotho has a formal media tradition spanning more than a century, and for its small size, the country has a remarkable 14 weekly newspapers, a number of periodicals, seven radio stations and two television stations. However, most of the media institutions are controlled by the state, or by political and religious organisations.

With the exception of the Lesotho Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), the reach of these media is restricted mostly to the capital Maseru and the surrounding peri-urban areas. Therefore, the majority of the country’s largely rural population does not have access to a diversity of news and information.

The media civil society and NGO’s like MISA have good sense of the issues and advocacy strategies.

The mountainous terrain makes it difficult and expensive to install telephony and the challenge is to explore low cost satellite and wireless options.

Universal Service and access to basic telecommunications and ICTs are a serious barrier to development and the effective participation by the people in development and democracy.

South African companies dominate the mobile and Internet markets, with a result that access charges and tariffs are high, and there is little investment in expanding and developing networks.

This lopsided ‘Digital Divide’ is symptomatic of Lesotho’s lack of an Integrated Rural Development Plan (IRDP).

The new communications regulator is still under-resourced, ministry controlled, and lacks critical research capacity to effectively implement policy and monitor the sector.

The higher education sector needs good quality and affordable internet bandwidth capacity in order to have access to on-line journals and knowledge resources.

(c) Education

Lesotho’s education system is largely similar to the one inherited from British colonial rule in 1966, and does little to prepare students for life in their own country.

Inherent problems in the system include poor facilities, the lack of institutional early childcare development programmes, an inadequate and poorly organised in-service teacher programme, and high pupil-to-teacher ratios, coupled with overcrowded classrooms.

Surprisingly, many more girls than boys attend school.

Overall per capita spending on primary education is high, owing to the government’s introduction of free schooling at primary level.

However, Lesotho’s education system is plagued by a lack of qualified maths and science teachers, a dearth of equipment and infrastructure for science and other practical subjects, and the high cost of secondary school examinations, which are run externally from the United Kingdom.

The ministry is slowly developing new capacities and the new Nepad e School project that will connect schools with ICT’s and educational content is a good start towards e education and ICT’s.

There is a lack of infrastructure for dealing with the education of disabled children. The government is trying to integrate children with disabilities into the mainstream school system, but progress is slow.

Key Lesotho NGOs dealing with early childhood development needs leadership and OD capacity as well as skills development.

The Aids epidemic has resulted in high teacher morbidity and mortality, absenteeism amongst both teachers and pupils, and a growth in the number of orphans.

There has been a conscious effort by the Ministry of Education to include teaching on human rights and life skills (the latter including HIV and Aids education) in the curriculum.