SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PRESENTS REPORT

18

The Headquarters of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) which used to be in Ethiopia has been moved to Maseru, Lesotho and started its operations in March 2020.

This was announced at the 2020/2021 financial year budget report on Tuesday in Maseru.

When presenting the ministry’s budget report, the Director of Planning, Mrs. Mankhatho Linko said although their ministry was affected by COVID-19, it was amongst the ministries which provide essential services hence continued to serve Basotho during the lockdown.

Mrs. Linko noted that the Persons with Disability Equity Act has been passed into law and the Amendment of Children’s Protection and Welfare Act 2011 is at its final stages and has already been submitted to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel (OPC), adding that the ministry has developed the National Disability Mainstreaming plan 2020- 2025 and has been completed.

Further talking about the ministry’s achievements, she said the ministry also launched the report on Violence Against Children and Youth Survey 2019 and its Plan of Action through the support of PEPFAR /ICAP Lesotho.

Again, Mrs. Linko remarked that although her ministry was faced with some challenges during the 2020/2021 financial year, it has provided additional subvention in a form of cash and food packages to facilities caring for children, the elderly and people with disability in response to COVID -19.

She added that while providing services in response to COVID-19 the ministry was mandated to administer the payment of 60-69 elderly who are vulnerable and not getting any grant from the government, saying that the payments were made and 31,954 received their payment whereas 768 missed their payments and 915 were excluded from the payment list and about 863 were not registered.

She said although the funds were provided for 34,500, registration in some areas did not go ahead as planned because communities wanted everyone to be registered whereas the registration criteria focused on vulnerable households, saying in Maseru, registration was delayed hence the ongoing payments to the beneficiaries.

Mrs. Linko said for the 2021/2022 financial year, the ministry will Provide bursaries to 28,304 vulnerable children in secondary schools, increase Child Grant Program (CGP) recipients by 7,000 households to 50,000 and will conduct 10 sensitisation workshops on bursary and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) issues.

She noted that the ministry will also enroll 5,000 household beneficiaries into CGP.

The Ministry of Social Development is mandated to facilitate the provision of sustainable social development services that are universally accessible to all vulnerable groups in Lesotho.

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