South African Institute of International Affairs cordially invites you to a Round Table Discussion to be addressed by His Excellency Mr H M Leteka, Former National African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Focal Point and Head of the National Governing Council (NGC) Secretariat, Kingdom of Lesotho on "Lessons from Lesotho's African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Experience".

Other Panelists:

Professor Roger Southall, Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand. He has followed Lesotho politics for over 30 years and formerly taught Political Science at the National University of Lesotho

Tšoeu Petlane, Deputy Head of SAIIA's Governance and APRM Programme, and former research coordinator in Lesotho's APRM process

The African Peer Review Mechanism was established in 2003, and has become the most important governance promotion initiative on the African continent. Lesotho's Prime Minister His Excellency Pakalitha Mosisili was reviewed by his fellow heads of state and government at the APR Forum meeting in Sirte, Libya in July 2009, making Lesotho the 12th state to have undergone all the stages of the peer review process. The key cross-cutting issues that emerged from Lesotho's Country Review Report were listed as "declining population growth, service delivery and policy implementation gaps, decentralisation, public accountability and corruption, over-dependence on aid, unemployment and migrant labour, the HIV/Aids pandemic, and Lesotho as an enclave political economy."

This roundtable will explore what lessons the Lesotho APRM process holds for other APRM members, countries yet to accede, and those interested in governance and development in Southern Africa.

Date: Monday 29 March 2010

Time: 10:15 for 10:30, to conclude by 12:30 and followed by a light lunch

Venue: SAIIA, Jan Smuts House, East Campus, University of Witwatersrand

RSVP: Ndumi Nqunqa. Places are limited.

Tel: (011) 339 2021 ext 117

Fax: (011) 339 2154

Email: Nondumiso.Nqunqa@wits.ac.za