MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN LESOTHO

Prime-Minister Pakalitha Mosisili shows his commitment to the MDGs during celebrations of the UN Day and launch of the MDG Report update in 2009, by signing a promise to fight poverty every day. The UN Resident Coordinator Ms Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie is next in line. Photo: UN Lesotho

1. Combat HIV, TB and other diseases
Lesotho has the third highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world after Swaziland and Botswana. The HIV epidemic is affecting every part of development in Lesotho and the Government has therefore declared the fight against HIV/AIDS as the first MDG. Almost one out of four adults in Lesotho is infected with HIV. The official number of people living with HIV/AIDS is now 23.2 per cent, which is a marginal decrease from the 23.9 per cent registered in 2000. The number of new infections have been more or less constant in the last two years. Every day, 50 Basotho die of HIV related causes and 60 others are newly infected with the virus.

The overall national response is in a scale-up mode. Anti Retroviral Treatment and HIV Testing and Counseling are available across the country at health centre level. Lesotho is significantly expanding and strengthening its prevention strategies, which is one of the areas that received relative low levels of funding relative to the challenge ahead according to a recent assessment on AIDS spending.

Another indicator of the seriousness of the situation is the rising number of orphans and other vulnerable children, most of them AIDS orphans. In 2006, there were more than 220,000 orphans and vulnerable children, which is almost double from the estimate in 1996, according to the Bureau of Statistics.

Without a comprehensive and sustainable response to the epidemic, all other development initatives will be ineffective. The Government is working closely with the UN and major development partners including EU, the Global Fund and PEPFAR to fight the epidemic and support the people who are already living with the infection.

2. Eradicate poverty and hunger
High levels of poverty and hunger are also of major concern. Over 55 per cent of the Basotho live in poverty and 25 per cent of the population is malnourished. Reaching the poverty and hunger goals is a formidable challenge and the efforts to wean poor and hungry Basotho out of this situation have so far not had the required impact to reach the goal of halving the proportion of poor or hungry.

Food security is a priority for the Government. In the recent budget the government announced the setting up of a Joint Task Team between the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning and of Agriculture and Food Security to develop an investment programme for the agriculture sector in collaboration with The World Bank, IFAD and FAO. This would greatly facilitate the mobilisation of resources to ensure longer term development interventions.

Unemployment is on the rise in Lesotho, leading to an increasingly difficult life for people. Partly as a result of the global economic crisis, the proportion of Basotho out of a job rose from 23 per cent in 2008 to more than 29 per cent in 2009. In response to the high unemployment especially among youth, the Government of Lesotho, UNDP and ILO are training young people to become entrepreneurs. Makalo Lesetla participated in the training in May 2009 and his car wash in Mafeteng employs not only himself but five other people as well. “I used to work for someone, but the pay was not enough to care for my family. With my business I can help other people to get a job and with the profit I can pay for my sister’s school”, says Makalo Lesetla. Photo: Hlompho Letsielo/UNDP Lesotho

3. Universal primary education
Lesotho has made progress towards achieving universal primary education and with scaled up efforts this goal can be met. Primary net enrolment is currently close to 82 percent (81.9 percent in 2008) and has fluctuated around this number since 2000 when the Government introduced free primary education. This was crucial intervention and opened the school doors for many Basotho children.

Important initiatives in the education area include improved school infrastructure and the initiation of school feeding programmes, some of which are carried out in partnership between teh Government, WFP and UNICEF. Under secondary education half way homes were introduced and rationalisation of school fees was undertaken to reduce the costs. As an incentive each public school was given a per child grant which is proportionate to the enrolment rate. Targeting the high poverty, the Government provides grants to secondary school children from poor homes that register their children into child care centres. The subsidy targets children that are orphans, disabled, neglected and from needy families.

4. Gender equality
Even though Lesotho like most countries in the world is still far from being gender equal very important changes and improvements have been made in the last years. The proportion of women in the parliament has increased from 5 per cent in 1990 to 30 per cent in 2010. Further, one-third of the Ministers are women, while almost half of the senior civil servants are women. Another very important step was the passing of the Legal Capacity of Married Persons Act in 2006 which removed the minority status of married women.

5. Reduce child mortality
Increasing poverty and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS make children in Lesotho very vulnerable to illness and even death. The proportion of children who die before their fifth birthday have slightly decreased since 2005, but it is still far from a pace which would make it possible to reach the goal of 37 or less deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015.

The infant mortality has increased in the last few years. In 2000, 74 infants per 1,000 live births died. Four years later, the number had risen to 91 infants dying per 1,000 live births. One of the major reasons for this increase is the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child. Other causes of death are diarrhea and pneumonia, which most likely are also linked to HIV-infection. Poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water was also found to be major causes of death in the 2004 Demographic Health Survey. Without bold measures, it is highly unlikely that Lesotho will meet the target of 24 or less infants dying per live births by 2015.

There has been little progress in scaling up immunization and especially in terms of immunization against measles. Since 2003, there has been a small increase to 80 per cent in 2008. However, this was characterised with wide disparities among districts and communities. The immunization against measles among children younger than one year old has constantly been less than the recommended 90 per cent.
 

One out of four Basotho are malnourished and undernourishment among children is one of the major reasons behind child mortality. In Mohale’s Hoek in the southern lowlands, a group of men and women have come together under a UN programme to use the land of one of the members and share the outputs between themselves, while at the same time receiving food assistance from WFP.  Photo: UN Lesotho

6. Reduce maternal mortality
Maternal mortality is rising in Lesotho and is among the highest in Southern Africa. In 1990, 282 women died per 100,000 live births. This number has now climbed to a 672 women per 100,000 live births in 2004. It is in other words highly unlikely that Lesotho will meet MDG 6, unless extraordinary efforts are made.

In most countries in Sub-saharan Africa including Lesotho, the health system remains weak and cannot respond to the health needs of mothers and newborns. One major reason for the high mortality is that many deliveries are not attended by skilled personnel. In Lesotho only a little more than half of the deliveries (55 per cent) are done with the help of a professional while the country aims at having 80 per cent skilled birth attendance to increase quality care during pregnancy, labour, childbirth and postpartum care. Presently, as per WHO estimates, not even one in four women (23 per cent) receive post natal care. Several Government initiatives have been taken to address this serious situation.

A Road Map to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Morbidity and Mortality has been launched by the Government in 2006. Development partners have also mobilised support for country wide implementation of the Roadmap. Further, a framework on Making Pregnancy Safer (MPS) has been adoptedas a way to make the Road Map operational. Most recently, the government has developed and adopted a reproductive health policy.

7. Ensure environmental sustainability
Progress towards the goal on environmental sustainability is mixed in Lesotho. The country is judged as one of the countries most vulnerable to the impact of climate change in the world, according to the the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The changing and more extreme weather could seriously affect people’s lives if appropriate measures are not taken.

As an estimated 70 per cent of the people in Lesotho are dependent on agriculture, a majority of the population is vulnerable to climate change. This is even more worrying since about 10 per cent of the land is currently classified as arable.

There is already intense pressure on the environment in Lesotho, largely due to the rugged terrain and a harsh climate which present a major challenge to agricultural productivity. According to UNFCCC, “Lesotho is prone to drought and desertification, has a fragile mountainous ecosystem and is prone to natural disasters”.

In terms of environmental degradation, the most tangible feature is the extensive soil erosion, with gullies (or dongas) and surface sheet erosion being wide-spread. This is not only attributable to natural factors, such as the rugged mountainous terrain, ‘erodible’ soils and erratic rainfall, but also to structural factors: overstocking and overgrazing of rangelands, poor agricultural practices, such as mono-cropping, biomass removal, and road construction in environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands.

This is exacerbated by population growth, which is putting pressure on arable land, reducing average land holdings, and increasing landlessness. Poverty is also encouraging the use of inappropriate farming methods, the removal of shrubs, as well as the use of cow dung as sources of fuel.

In the area of water and sanitation, significant progress has been witnessed. In 1996, an estimated 38 percent of Lesotho’s population did not have access to safe drinking water, with most of the population located in the rural areas. These led to increased challenge in improving water coverage on scattered small and remote highlands rural communities that are, in most cases, inaccessible. During the late 1990s, there were discernible improvements in access at the national level, and by 2000 only 23 percent were without access to safe drinking water. This further improved to 21 percent in 2002.