Promoting Intra Party Democracy in Lesotho

EISA is implementing a project aimed at strengthening political parties as a way of contributing towards sustainable democracy in Lesotho. It is district based and 10 workshops are planned to take place throughout the country.

Overview

Political parties are expected to play a key role in the democratic process and the project aims to equip political parties in Lesotho with skills enabling them to effectively promote democracy in their country. It focuses on capacity building through training workshops covering thematic areas such as gender representation in political parties; internal organisation; management and functioning of parties; leadership qualities within political parties as well as conflict and conflict management.

The project builds upon earlier political party projects and activities conducted by EISA in Lesotho in order to further strengthen parties for sustainable democracy. Previous activities include research on democratic consolidation, democratic governance, public outreach programmes and dialogue on political party capacity needs as well as its Election Update series and the deployment of a regional election observation mission under the leadership of Sir Ketumile Masire, former President of Botswana.

Project Objectives

• To conduct capacity building for parties in Lesotho in gender representation, intra-party democracy, outreach activities, conflict management and leadership.
• To promote dialogue within parties in order to manage internal tensions.

Project Components

• Gender representation
• Primary elections
• Nomination of candidates
• Leadership in parties
• Intra and inter-party conflict

This project is a collaboration between EISA and the Lesotho Council for Non Governmental Organisations (LCN). It is funded by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).