• State building & state capacity

State Building & state capacity

Structurally connected to South Africa and heavily dependent on donor handouts, Lesotho has been facing daunting challenges following its crucial return to democracy in 1993. This paper investigates the extent of democratic consolidation in the country and concludes that despite deficits and gaps in crucial areas of governance, Lesotho has made considerable progress in democracy. The paper also visualises Lesotho in 2020 as a country with a stable democracy and a strong economy.

The study was conducted as part of a larger project entitled ‘Consolidating democratic governance in Southern African Development Community (SADA) region.’ It examines the progress of Lesotho in four areas of democratic governance. They are: representation and accountability; citizen participation; local governance; and economic management and corporate governance. The main findings include:

• a mixed member proportion system of representation has contributed enormously to the political stability that has prevailed since 2002 elections. However, the country still faces huge deficits with respect to improved service delivery, vibrant community-based organisation, women’s empowerment, state-civil society relations and improved transparency
• civil society organisations have complemented the government in its efforts to promote social and economic development. However, they have limited capacity to influence the overall policy direction of the state
• local councils in Lesotho are highly susceptible to manipulations by the ruling party
• efforts towards product and market diversification have not gone too far and there is no clear channel for the majority of the rural poor to benefit from economic growth.

The study makes certain recommendations to address these problems. Important among them are:

• a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee should be set up to ensure effective legislative control over the executive
• CSOs should not allow the dialogue between MPs and the electorate to be a monopoly of political parties. This should be part of civil society agenda
• measures should be taken to enhance women’s representation and participation
• local government should be given resources commensurate with their responsibilities
• the issue of diversification of productive sector should be addressed as a matter of urgency
  

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