The Lesotho Gender and Media Baseline Study initiated by the Media Institute of Southern Africa in collaboration with Gender Links, a South African non-governmental organisation that promotes gender equality in and through the media shows that women’s views and voices are under-represented in Lesotho’s media.

A recently released report documents the complaints of communities affected by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) and recommends to the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) that conditions at schools in various districts are immediately improved.

The recently released annual report on Human Rights Practices in Lesotho for 2002 says the Lesotho government generally respected the human rights of its citizens except for unconfirmed allegations of torture by security forces and credible reports of use of excessive force against detainees by the police. The report was released by United States of America’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.

The Lesotho National Development Corporation has donated 16 computers to 16 high schools, which have consistently demonstrated outstanding academic performance. The donation was handed over by the LNDC Chief Executive, Sophia Mohapi at LNDC premises on the 11th April 2003.

“It is the Government’s desire to see transformation in the agricultural sector to ensure food security which is a major contribution to poverty reduction in the rural areas where poverty is prevalent,” said the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Rakoro Phororo at Transformation in Agriculture and Partnership in Agricultural Entrepreneurship meeting. Speaking at the function, Phororo said food security is enter-twined with the economy as villages, districts and urban areas need food adequately produced to satisfy the needs of the population in terms of quantity and quality, writes Tepiso Mncina.

The Lesotho Court of Appeal on Monday confirmed the conviction of the former head of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority on 13 counts of receiving bribe money from international contractors and consultants.

They first took this unique method of farming to the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa last year and showed the world how this unique farming system could ensure sustainable food security. Small farmers from Africa and Latin America who advocated restrictions on genetically modified foods at the World Summit fell in love with it, and in a small but very significant way, Lesotho’s small farmers using the Machobane farming system are contributing to the fight against famine and unsustainable food security in their own country.

The communities affected by the construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project say an associated compensation policy has been used to further the aims and objectives of the project without taking into consideration the trauma and discomfort they suffered as a result of this resettlement.

The Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) monitoring the environmental and social aspects of the massive Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), came under heavy fire from the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) recently during a formal inquiry into the complaints leveled against the Project by the resettled and affected communities. The LHDA officials at the inquiry threw verbal missiles at the TRC accusing it of creating deliberate confusion and misunderstanding about the LHWP's compensation policy in the minds of the communities affected by the project, which sells water to South Africa.

While it is seen as a project that has brought some remarkable economic prosperity to the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho and an engineering feat surpassed by none of its kind in the whole world, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) has left a trail of destitution, uncertainty and hopelessness amongst the communities affected by it in the Mohale area.

The first part of the formal inquiry conducted by the Ombudsman into over 100 complaints regarding compensation of communities affected by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) ended at the National Convention Centre (NCC) on Wednesday, February 19, 2003 with compensation for communal assets, threshold payment and resettlement in general dominating the discussions. Most of the complaints put forward by the communities affected by the mammoth Project were similar to those presented in the first day of the inquiry and included delayed payment of compensation for communal assets, gardens, threshold payment and the poor and shoddy workmanship on the houses built for them by the Project, and lack of basic household equipment such as stoves supposed to have been provided by the Project.

The United Nations Children’s Fund has launched the 2003 State of the World’s Children Report that focuses on the merits and necessities of child participation in all matters affecting them. The report was launched in Maseru, Lesotho. The report calls on adults ‘to seek out the perspectives and opinions of children and to take their viewpoints seriously, in order to help children and adolescents to develop the ability to participate in the world in a competent, authentic and meaningful way’.

A row over bribery allegations took the shine off shareholder approval for the Amec board to proceed with its full takeover of French construction company SPIE this week. A legal case involving SPIE Batignolles and its involvement in a controversial dam known as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project was adjourned on Monday until October in an African court.

An agreement between the government of Lesotho and the Germany-based pharmaceutical company Boringer-Ingelheim has led to the launch of the AIDS drug nevirapine to combat HIV/AIDS in the country.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, James T. Morris, has highlighted the plight of women and children amid the twin crises of HIV/AIDS and food shortages.

The multibillion-rand Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), which transfers huge quantities of water from the rugged peaks of the Mountain Kingdom to the industrial heartland of South Africa, has always fitted the current stereotype of large dams – that they are massive, expensive and, environmental campaigners would say, destructive. The conviction on bribery charges last year of former Lesotho Highlands Water Authority (LHWA) CEO Masupha Sole and Canadian engineering firm Acres International added another dimension – corruption.

The current famine in Lesotho is further compounded by HIV/Aids as many young and able-bodied people who cultivate the fields succumb to HIV/Aids related complications. According to the United Nations Resident Representative, Scholastica Kimaryo, the current famine that has left many families destitute has an incestuous link with the high prevalence of HIV/Aids, which has put Lesotho amongst the top four countries worst affected by the pandemic in the world.

The Lesotho Red Cross Society has distributed 265 metric tons of maize seeds and 410 metric tons of fertilizers to orphans. The distribution also covered the aged and the disabled in the districts of Berea, Butha-Buthe and Leribe. Seventy metric tons of maize seeds were distributed in the Mokhotlong district.

A combination of bad weather, late deliveries of seeds and fertiliser could condemn Lesotho to another disastrous harvest this year, World Food Programme officials say.

The Lesotho National Insurance Group (LNIG) is suing the weekly tabloid "Mohahlaula", for publishing a news item that the company has deemed to be damaging to its business activities. In its 15 November 2002 edition, the publication reported that the company was facing possible bankruptcy due to alleged mismanagement of funds.