Water For Justice

As the clock ticks towards 2015

BY MZIMKHULU SITHETHO

MASERU - The journey is only half way to the 2015 destination for Lesotho and other countries of the world to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that they set for themselves as targets to achieve in the fifteen years since 2000 when they made a commitment. However, it seems the country is caught up at crossroads with predicaments that make any attempts for achievement of these targets for 2015 a fallacy toiling over successes. In September 2000, world leaders of the United Nations member-states, including Lesotho adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The Declaration sets out within a single framework the key challenges facing humanity. It outlines a response to these challenges, establishes concrete measures for assessing performance through a set of inter-related goals on development, governance, peace, security and human rights. These targets have been termed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Government of Lesotho is committed to implementing the Millennium Declaration and to the systematic monitoring of the MDGs within the context of the National Vision and the Poverty Reduction Strategy processes. As part of its efforts towards integrating the MDGs into the planning process, a needs assessment study was carried out in 2005 to estimate the financial and human resources required to meet the MDGs. The study was linked to the costs associated with the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy. According to the study, Lesotho's prospects for achieving the MDGs seem far-fetched. For this article, we will look at only four of the eight MDGS and then proceed with the remaining four in the next article.

Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
The HIV and AIDS pandemic continues to undermine past efforts to improve the quality of life of the population. It has reduced human capital committed to productive activities and threatens prospects of sustainable human development. For Lesotho, it has been well acknowledged that the foremost caveat to attaining all eight MDGs is the scourge of HIV and AIDS. HIV/AIDS prevalence trends at the population level have shown a steep increase over the years. Projections established that a person who became 15 years old in 2000 has a 74% chance of becoming HIV positive by the time they reach the age of 50, according to the UNAIDS Global Report 2002. National estimates produced recently in collaboration with UNAIDS/WHO place Lesotho as the country with the fourth highest adult HIV prevalence rate in the world. Since 2000, numerous sero-prevalence and behavioral surveys have substantiated that Lesotho’s HIV/AIDS pandemic is characteristic of the generalized HIV/AIDS pandemic within the Sub-Saharan African context.
Of the 320,000 HIV-infected people living in Lesotho, women and children are the adversely affected population groups. Now the prevalence rate stands at 22-25 percent. Of note is that the new infections were predominantly among younger women and children who have been attributed to the common sexual partnerships between older more experienced men who are already likely to be HIV infected and the younger uninfected women. Currently, the adult prevalence rate is 23.2 percent (26 percent prevalence among women and 19 percent prevalence among men). Another daunting challenge is to ensure that the more than 100,000 young people below the age of 17, whom, by the end of 2003 had lost one or both parents, have access to quality education, health, shelter as well as adequate nutrition. Above all, they are entitled to love and care as well as an opportunity to explore their potential as young people instead of shouldering the burden of being heads of households and caregivers.

Eradicate extreme poverty
Lesotho’s geopolitical location within the Republic of South Africa exposes it to a multitude of economic shocks beyond its control. The numbers of migrant mineworkers from Lesotho who worked in South Africa’s mines fell from 61,424 at the end of 2003 to 56,353 at the end of 2004, and down to 50,837 by the third quarter of 2006. Migrant Labour system has been a great contributor to Lesotho’s wealth creation for many decades before 1994 when that country attained independence. These developments have had a bearing on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Specifically, Lesotho’s MDG 2, which seeks to reduce by half, the proportion of people who live below the poverty line by 2015, is significantly compromised. The 24 percent unemployment rate is quite distressing, and continues to be further exacerbated by the retrenchments in the mines in South Africa. Available job opportunities in the country do not adequately meet the demand. One of the key features of the poverty situation in Lesotho is the inequality with which incomes are distributed. The poorest 10 percent of the population have command of less than one percent of the total income while the same proportion of the richest command more than 50 percent of the total income. This disparity is more pronounced in the rural-urban divide, in which urban districts have significantly higher levels of income compared to the rural districts. The level of poverty and vulnerability in rural and mountainous districts is much higher than in the urban districts.
There is also a distinct gender aspect to income poverty in Lesotho. Female-headed households are generally poor compared to the male-headed households. This is mainly a reflection of socio-cultural practices. Traditionally men are providers or breadwinners and the loss of a husband in a family setup places the household in a very precarious situation. This is particularly true for those families that largely depend on the labor and income (remittances) of the husbands.
Lesotho, along with several other countries in the Sub-region, has been going through severe food shortages in the recent past resulting in unprecedented food insecurity for a vast swath of the population. The underlying causes of food insecurity remain the same. These include poverty, continued land degradation and soil erosion, recurrent droughts and frosts.
The chronic food insecurity has serious manifestations on the nation’s children. Twenty two percent of the children under the age of five are underweight. In addition, 17 percent are stunted and 12 percent are wasted. The proportion of children underweight has increased by more than a third from 1992 to 2002. This is an indication that Lesotho’s population is becoming more food insecure. Whilst these indicators highlight the likelihood of significant chronic food insecurity problems, they should be interpreted with a degree of caution insofar as they indicate food intake (hunger), as they also capture the influence of health and care factors.

Promote gender equality and empower women
The Basotho society is patrilineal and patriarchal, with the man as head of the family and the sole decision-maker. Though the trend may be gradually changing with the advent of a few legislative advances, stark realities on the ground do not demonstrate this. However, in the past, women were de facto heads of households due to excessive male labor migration to South Africa. As a result, they were responsible for agricultural production, which was the backbone of Lesotho’s economy. Women now contribute significantly to the economy of the country, and dominate the Small Medium and Micro Enterprises and are seen in great numbers in the clothing and garment sector. However, discrimination against women has remained a problem and is based on Customary and Common Laws enshrined in the Constitution, under which women are considered perpetual minors under guardianship of their spouses and male relatives. Nevertheless, the Parliament has passed the Married Person’s Equality Act of 2006 which commits government to promote gender equality as a fundamental human right.
The majority of women in Lesotho enjoy higher rates of educational attainment and literacy rates, unlike in most other countries in Africa. However, the gap between females and males is shrinking at most levels, especially at primary level where the proportion is almost one to one (MOET; 2004). In 2004, more boys than girls enrolled into primary school, with a ratio of 101.2. However, this equilibrium might be distorted by the HIV pandemic, which has been seen to affect more women than men, especially because they bear a much larger burden in caring for the sick and the increasing numbers of orphans.
Despite the relatively high education levels of women, men dominate the overwhelming majority of political and decision-making positions. While females account for 63 per cent – almost two-third – of professional, technical and related positions in the formal sector, they still lag behind in administrative and managerial positions, accounting for only 34 per cent of all decision-making positions (BoS, 1999). Another clear indication of the limited access that women have to the most influential posts in society is the low number of women represented in the National Parliament. In 1993 the National Assembly had only 3 seats occupied by female members out of the total of 60, representing 5 per cent of the total. Since then, the situation has improved significantly. In May 2002, 14 women occupied parliamentary seats out of a total of 80 seats – or 17 per cent of all members in the National Assembly. In 2004, 18 women occupied parliamentary seats out of the total of 120 seats – 15 per cent of all members in the National Assembly. Moreover, women hold 6 out of 21 cabinet posts (albeit including 2 junior portfolios), and out of 33 members of the upper house of parliament, women occupy 12 Senate seats (approximately 36 per cent). The Local Government elections held in 2006 brought a bit of hope in the gender sphere with 58 percent women representation in local councils. This was engineered by the fusion of the allocation of a third of a every electoral division to a woman went uncontestable by men

Achieve universal primary education
The Government of Lesotho is committed to the provision of basic and quality education to all its people. The Government embarked on a programme of Free Primary Education (FPE), introduced gradually over a 7-year period, beginning with Standard 1. As a result, primary enrolment increased to 69 percent in 2000 and further to 85 percent in 2003. In support of the programme, 184 new schools have been constructed, while 1,105 new classrooms were installed. More than 1 million textbooks and other teaching materials were supplied to 1,300 schools.
The country continues to have a higher level of primary enrolment for girls than for boys. This is unique in the developing world, where it is customary that girls are discriminated against in accessing primary schooling. In Lesotho the norm has been that boys from young ages tend to herd livestock and later in life migrate to take up work in the South African mining industry. Recently, the advantage of girls over boys in primary education seems to be narrowing.
however, a ttainment of the MDGS has been put under a microscope by Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso, the high commissioner to the United Kingdom who does not see Africa meeting Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if funding flows are to keep the bureaucratic pace they are taking. Speaking to afrol News and responding to current commitments made by richer countries at the Group of Eight (G8) summit held in Japan in June 2008, Prince Seeiso said strategies have to be intensified to meet demands and development pressures.
"What we see are politics of figures from pledges, and nothing else. In fact G8 countries are not necessarily making new pledges, but just topping up to what they were not able to deliver since Gleneagles Summit," he said.
The outspoken Lesotho Prince said targets to meet MDGs by 2015 was way out of reach, calling on both donors and recipients to find workable models to speed up development processes.
For instance, Prince Seeiso said there was a huge gap between pledges made and actual recipients, saying it would do funders a great deal if they were to take time to visit intended recipients and listen and learn from them.
Talking specifically about Lesotho as a recipient country, the prince called on government to bring meaning to decentralization, saying there was no meaning for people at rural settings to access development funding only through the will of central government.
Given the conditions stated, it is evident that Lesotho is not an inch closer to attaining the MDGs not even in areas that the country has made concerted efforts such as in free primary education and in the fight against HIV/Aids pandemic.