Chapter one: The African Peer Review Mechanism and its implementation in Lesotho • Dr Yousif A Suliman (Sudan), formerly director of the Planning Department of the Sudan Ministry of Planning and special assistant to the executive secretary and director, regional cooperation and integration, as well as director of administration, UNECA. Activities undertaken during the CRM 30 40. The CRM was facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations as the Focal Point Ministry. 41. The CRM formally began on 24 March 2009 with a launch attended by His Excellency, the Right Honourable Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili, prime minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho. The mission subsequently paid a courtesy call to His Majesty King Letsie III. 42. Whilst in Maseru, the CRM interacted with key government departments regarding the thematic clusters, held sessions with the representatives of the Senate and Parliament, and met with the chief justice and members of the judiciary. The CRM further held discussions with various nonstate stakeholder groups, including women’s groups, trade unions, the private sector, academia, faithbased organisations and political parties, and interacted with institutions with a bearing on governance [the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)]. Additionally, the CRM met with the diplomatic corps and bilateral development partners. 43. The CRM undertook visits to five of the 10 districts in Lesotho, namely Butha-Buthe, Leribe, Mohale’s Hoek, Thaba-Tseka and Quthing. The centres brought together stakeholders from other districts, thus providing the mission with broad-based perspectives from the grass roots. Apart from meeting the district administrators and government officials at decentralised levels, the mission had open forums with stakeholder groups such as women’s groups, the youth, the disabled, the elderly, NGOs, academia, the media, small businesses, faith-based organisations, trade unions, private sector companies and community-based organisations (CBOs), social service institutions and traditional leaders on the emerging issues in the CSAR and NPoA. 44. Finally, the mission returned to Maseru for wrap-up sessions with the Cabinet and the NGC. 1.5 Structure of the report 45. The report is structured on the basis of seven chapters. Apart from this present introductory section, chapter 2 provides an overview of, and backdrop to, Lesotho. The four chapters that follow evaluate developments and outstanding challenges in the four APRM focus areas (democracy and good political governance; economic governance and management; corporate governance; and socioeconomic development). Chapter 7 contains a discussion of the overarching issues, which are considered critical owing to their impact on governance and which require immediate and urgent attention. Finally, the NPoA and comments received from the country are annexed to the report.