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Lesotho Budgets for Provision of Disability Grant to Deserving Persons with Disabilities
26 February, 2020
On 26 February 2020, honourable Minister of Finance, Dr. Moeketsi Majoro, announced in his 2020 budget speech post meeting held at the Maseru Avani Hotel that the Government of Lesotho had for the first time budgeted for provision of disability grant to deserving persons with disabilities.
He, however, said he had forgotten to put this information on his budget estimates statement read in Parliament.
The Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFOD) – which is the official national affiliate of the Southern Africa Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) – pledged to follow up with the Ministry to advise and monitor the implementation of this right to social protection for persons with disabilities.
It was not yet clear to LNFOD how much would each person get per month and eligibility criteria had not yet been set for the grant; hence the follow-up.
According to Lesotho’s National Disability Mainstreaming Plan, access to livelihoods for persons with disabilities has been identified as one of the priority areas. Some of the outcome indicators under this priority area include: the number of persons with disabilities meeting their household needs due to the provision of the disability grant; number of persons with disabilities becoming entrepreneurs and raising income for their families; Increased number of persons with disabilities employed in public service; Number of persons with disabilities engaged in entrepreneurship and practicing internal savings and lending; among other indicators.
In 2008, Lesotho became the 42nd country to ratify the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
In 2017, the country’s Constitutional Court repealed section 219 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act of 1981, which denied people with intellectual disability the right to testifying in court.