Lijeng Ranooe
LOCAL Government and Chieftainship Affairs Minister, Habofanoe Lehana, says the government is working on increasing the public’s participation and contribution to the government decision-making processes at various levels.
He said this during the 18th Annual Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations Week, which also included their 28th Annual General Meeting held at Manthabiseng Convention Centre in Maseru.
The dialogue was facilitated by Development for Peace Education (DPE) with the aim to provide a platform where NGOs can gather to share and reflect on the progress and challenges they are facing in their operations.
The theme for this year is: “Towards Inclusive Reform Process for Stable and Transformative Lesotho”.
This forum comes at the backdrop of an ongoing court case involving the Local Government versus DPE and Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), who are defending the public’s right to have their voices heard and to contribute to the decisions the government makes before laws and policies are passed.
In August 2016, DPE brought the matter before the courts with concerns over how the Human Rights Commission and the Local Government elections were legislated without adequate consultations and the involvement of members of the public. Discussions around the inclusion of people and their representatives to participate in key decision-making processes anchored the NGO Week.
Speaking at the dialogue session, Mr Lehana explained the importance of public participation as a process that seeks to ensure that the members of the public are accorded the opportunity to express their opinions and to influence the designing of programmes, formulation of policies and regulations that affect them.
“The practice of public participation involves setting up systems that allow the public and those who represent them to contribute to decision-making processes in a meaningful way. The ministry has formulated national decentralisation policy and facilitated the enactment of a legislation that makes provisions for citizens and civil society empowerment,” Mr Lehana said, adding, the objective of the policy was to increase participation by citizens and non-state actors in governance and service delivery issues.
He further explained the government was aware that an empowered society was one whose citizens are aware of their responsibilities and rights, and as a result, can claim them irrespective of social- economic status and beliefs.
Under such conditions, the citizens are also knowledgeable and therefore have the capacity to contribute to development activities while holding the government and other service providers accountable.
“The government is committed to the establishment of proper coordination mechanisms, maintaining and creating new partnerships and to develop systems that will help to enhance active participation by all stakeholders.”
Mr Lehana also emphasised the need for robust systems that can promote real engagements, adding that, the establishment of frameworks that enable and encourage the public to participate was critical.
“We are working hard to establish those systems in partnership with other actors including NGOs and have since proposed the development of a road-map that would guide activities aiming to educate the councils and the public for the development of a fully decentralised system in Lesotho.” Mr Lehana said.