Community Participation and Local Government Planning in Lesotho: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

Good governance and decentralisation are now generally accepted as the best form of political, administrative and institutional organisation for the success of sustainable development. In pursuit of the promotion of good governance and decentralisation for sustainable development planning, the Government of Lesotho formulated the Local Government Act of 1997 to regulate local government structures, functions and planning, and promulgated it in 2001. This paper provides a critical appraisal of efforts to put local government planning into practice in Lesotho through the use of the ‘Quick and SMART' local government planning model. This article uses the SWOT analysis technique to undertake a critical appraisal of this planning model, and concludes that while the model has some strengths, it also has potentially fatal fl aws that are likely to result in unsustainable local government planning in Lesotho.

Africa Insight Vol. 38 (1) 2008: pp. 95-104