Lesotho

Key actors

Actors within the Government of Lesotho, particularly the Disaster Management Authority, have limited capacity to respond to the crisis in the country. The most recent plan for food security policy is found in the Lesotho National Plan of Action for Nutrition 1997. This was developed by a multisectoral government team and focuses on the production, distribution, consumption and utilization of food, and on food and nutrition research and policy formation. A review of the Government of Lesotho's response to the humanitarian emergency of 2002-2003 took place in November 2003 - January 2004. The development of a new multi-sectoral food security strategy is planned for 2004 which will seek to complement or add to the food security objective in the Lesotho Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. It is anticipated that the multi-sectoral food security strategy will consider both food access and food availability issues and not focus solely (as previous food security planning and the draft PRSP have done) on agricultural production alone. There is a growing consensus that HIV/AIDS and the retrenchment of Basotho miners are as important factors in food security as agricultural production.

In terms of donors, the main actors are Irish AID, DFID and the EU. The WFP has an office based in Lesotho which was established in January 2005, with a JPO VAM officer and a full-time national VAM programme officer. The office regular monitors the food security situation and conducts surveys in the country. As a result of high levels of stunting, school feeding, has been a long-term WFP / Government of Lesotho activity that preceded the food distributions that took place in 2002-2003.

Food security issues and debates

• Lesotho's experiences in 2002-2003 were somewhat different to other countries that were part of the Southern African UNCAP and EMOP. The main question in Lesotho is whether it has a food crisis or a broader poverty crisis. The 2002-2003 crisis was as much a crisis of purchasing power (because of the retrenchments from South Africa mines over the last decade and rising maize prices because of uncertainty) as one of food availability. Some of the negative effects of retrenchment have been soaked up by employment opportunities (mainly for women) in the garment industry in Maseru. However, the wages paid in the garment industry are low and very little in the way of remittances is sent back to rural areas.
  
• It has been suggested that Lesotho's situation in 2003 is not especially different from recent years. Between 1990 and 2000, Lesotho's population grew from 1.8 to 2.3 million, placing increasing pressure on a very limited amount of arable land for cereal production. However, the importation of food into Lesotho is in no way unusual. Maize is imported from South Africa every year. However, there is some disagreement about whether the country should pursue a strategy of self-sufficiency (as it did in the 1980s) or whether it should switch from cereals to high value cash crops. The cropping season 2002-2003 saw an increase in the number of people requiring assistance. In early 2003 it was predicted that cereal production would be compromised by dependency resulting from the availability of food aid, and that food shortages will be worse in the coming year because fewer farmers have planted in anticipation of receiving more food aid. This prediction was correct, though limited planting was also the result of late delivery of government-subsidised inputs.
  
• HIV/AIDS is a growing issue. Infection rates are estimated at around 32% and numbers of orphans are increasing at an alarming rate. The conceptual models that have been applied across Southern Africa link HIV/AIDS to food production shortages because households infected or affect by HIV/AIDS have a shortage of agricultural labour. These deserve more detailed exploration in Lesotho, especially given that agricultural production in Lesotho has adapted over the last century to a shortage of agricultural labour when men were migrant labourers in South Africa and that many of those men have returned to Lesotho.
  
  

Food security stakeholders

• Parliament: parliamentary sub-committee on agriculture
  
• Government departments: especially VP's office (Disaster Management Unit) Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Development Planning; Food Management Authority
  
• Monitoring networks: especially for crop forecasting; Famine Early Warning System Network; Vulnerability Assessment Committee; proposed Poverty Monitoring Unit; Bureau of Statistics
  
• Consortia
  
• Private sector: e.g. Grain millers through Food Management Authority; TEBA Holdings
  
• International NGOs: e.g. SC; Care; Red Cross; World Vision
  
• Civil society and local NGOs: e.g. through Lesotho Council of NGOs
  
• Research organisations: e.g. NUL; Sechaba
  
• Donors: e.g. DFID; EU; Irish Aid; World Bank
  
• UN/Humanitarian agencies: e.g. WFP; FAO; UNAIDS
  
• Farmers: e.g. through Lesotho Council of NGOs
  

The Forum for Food Security in Southern Africa is contributing to national high level food security policy options seminars taking place in each focus country (ie Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe) in 2004. Click here for details of the meeting in Lesotho.

Click on the links for the Lesotho Country Food Security Options Paper and other documents under Lesotho section in information centre.

For enquiries or comments on these feedback meetings in Lesotho, please contact Rachel Slater.