Post-2015 Development Agenda Community Meeting was organized on March
10th, 2015 at the Transformation Resources Centre (TRC) where 39 participants
representing civil society organisations in Maseru attended.
The objectives of the meeting were to:
- Understand community priorities for Post-2015
- Discuss concrete ideas for implementation:
- Concrete actions for successful implementation? – what has worked in the past
- Identify challenges for successful implementation?-What has not worked
- Discuss platforms and mechanisms on HOW to implement
- Clarify the role of Government and Civil Society Organisations
- Brainstorm engagement activities for the rest of the year:
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Members of NGOs during the Post 2015 Maseru Meeting |
Introduction to Post 2015 Development agenda was made with reference
to Lesotho's performance on the MDGs. The civil society engagement processes
conducted this far were shared and a video of 2013 country consultations
was made to familiarize participants of what other community members
identified as priorities for development. Civil society representatives
participating in the meeting concurred to the priorities made during the
country consultations, however as a way to re emphasise the following
priorities were identified;
1. Health
- Increase budget allocation for Health Sector as per the Abuja Declaration (15%)
- Human Resources Development-train more teachers especially for scarce skills in Lesotho education
- Promote the culture of creativity and innovation-harness use of technology to facilitate easy teaching and learning and ensure that teachers are up to date with the current technological approaches
- Improve governance and ensure implementation of decentralization policy
- Avail preventive medicines at community level
2. Education
- Infrastructure development; building of schools where needed, roads and bridges to allow easy accessibility to schools
- Strengthen capacity of Nurses and doctors and increase their numbers in the health facilities especially in the hard to reach areas
- Increase number of health centres especially in hard to reach areas
- Improve governance and ensure implementation of decentralization policy
- Avail preventive medicines at community level
3. Economic Growth
- Direct Foreign and local Investment
- Examples: Investing in agriculture, mining, factories and industrial work
4. Environmental protection and food security
- Develop a culture of environmental protection in the country e.g. closure of Lekokoaneng stone project was closed down sometime due to inability of the project to respond to environmental challenges let by the project
- Strengthen existing safety nets
- Protecting business sites (building stalls) for street vendors
Factors which led to failure to successful implementation were identified as;
the political instability in the country, lack of funding, weak capacity of local
government structures, less motivated teachers, Ministry of health assuming many
implementation responsibilities particularly at primary level, corruption etc.
Some of the implementation recommendations included the introduction of courses
and in service training for civil society, Civil society should develop their own
retention strategy, document best practices for actors including civil society,
develop implementation framework for every development commitment that we adhere
to with logical framework and monitoring plan, Strong mobilization of resources
by CSOs etc.
Areas to improve:
- Induction courses and in service training for civil society
- Civil society should develop their own retention strategy
- Document best practices for actors including civil society
- Develop implementation framework for every development commitment that we adhere to with logical framework and monitoring plan
- Strong mobilization of resources by CSOs
- Consider time frames to include reviews depending on the country situation
- Expected results /outcomes be aligned to country capacity for effective implementation
- Independent body to oversee implementation
- Clear Partnership Framework
- Coordination mechanisms be in place
Lesotho Council of NGOs is persuading the civil society to take
advantage in influencing the post 2015 Agenda through public
dialogue and other platforms.
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