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