Lesotho National Dialogue and Stabilization Project

Facilitating consensus building and catalyzing an environment conducive to comprehensive national reforms in Lesotho

To contextualize the reforms, especially security sector related ones, the project used volunteer experts from SADC Member States who were familiar with the Lesotho context. This reduced the project’s implementation cost. Through the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation and the Summit of Heads of States and Governments, SADC provided a political deadlock-breaking mechanism in which shuttle diplomacy was applied to defuse tensions and bring conflicting parties to the negotiation table. 

In addition to engaging experts from the SADC region and leveraging the political capital of the SADC Organ, the project utilized South-South cooperation by relying on the mobilization capability of civil society and faith-based organizations in SADC member countries. National partners – the Christian Council of Lesotho and Lesotho Council for NGOs – and their regional counterparts adopted traditional dialogue mechanisms to get views and input of citizens on the reforms. A fulltime SADC Facilitation Team led by the President of South Africa was established to engage with SADC, thus serving as a political and social deadlock breaking mechanism to defuse tensions in the dialogue process. The SADC also provided timelines and oversight which sustained regional engagement. Importantly, South Africa's experience with transitioning from apartheid rule and the handling of internal conflicts through a mediating role was critical to the negotiations and consensus building. The national dialogue process identified the institutions that should be reformed to enhance good governance, social accountability and cohesion. Other results included: 

1. National agreement on reform content and options for implementation, safeguarded by a legal and institutional framework. This has become the basis for national reconciliation, sustainable peace and a reform path for democratic governance in Lesotho. The outcome document was endorsed by governing coalition partners, opposition parties in and outside parliament, religious groups, civil society organizations, professional associations, academia, the media, women’s organizations, youth groups, people living with disabilities, farmers and herders unions, trade unions and Royalty. 
2. A strong foundation for a comprehensive vision, strategy and policy for the national security sector, with reduced tensions and enhanced participation of the sector in the reform process through policy assessment, engagement and concurrence with the sector’s high command, counselling and psychosocial support for 1,200 security members and security training for 500 trainers. 
3. The communication strategy for national dialogue and reforms led to increased access to coherent information on the national dialogue and reform process and mobilization of the public to effectively participate in district consultations. 
4. Implementation arrangements for resolutions and decisions of national reform were established through the enactment of the National Reforms Authority Act, 2019, which constitutes a safeguard to insulate the reform process for interference. These arrangements resulted in the mobilization of over $4 million for reform implementation, including support from the European Union, UNDP and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund.