Executive summary council seats to be reserved for women representatives. These reforms have improved gender equality and the political representation of women in the political system. 6. Crosscutting issues 6.1 The thematic review revealed nine recurrent issues that impact on all areas of governance and which require a holistic intervention to find solutions. These include the following: 6.1 Implementation of codes and standards 6.2 According to the Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR), Lesotho has acceded to most of the international and regional governance standards and codes outlined in the APRM questionnaire under each governance thematic area, but did not provide detailed information on the extent of ratification and domestication of the standards and codes. 6.2 Declining population growth 6.3 Lesotho’s declining population growth is unique for a developing country. Possible causes of the decline in population growth include migration, falling fertility rates, rising mortality, decreasing life expectancy at birth and the HIV and AIDS pandemic. If present trends continue, Lesotho will be faced with the ominous threat that its population will cease to grow, or may even decline to below the replacement level. Such prospects should be a matter of serious concern to the country. Urgent policies to reverse these trends in the population growth rates are called for. 6.3 Service delivery and policy implementation gaps 6.4 The CRM found inefficient and ineffective delivery of public services and policy implementation to be a major weakness of governance in Lesotho deserving of urgent and determined remedial actions. In the public sector, this is due to a number of factors, including lack of technology, poor management, a poor working environment and low staff morale. Service delivery is also constrained by confusion over responsibilities, as many roles overlap among ministries, departments and divisions. The result is continuing power struggles and conflicts among government departments. Poor coordination within government leads to poorly integrated planning. Another area where service delivery is deemed poor is budget implementation. 6.4 Decentralisation 6.5 Lesotho has the legal and policy frameworks for decentralisation and has set up a number of structures in this regard, including local councils. There are, however, significant challenges to decentralisation: inadequate capacity of the stakeholders, from councillors to staffs of the councils and line ministries at the district level, to communities; poor fiscal decentralisation; lack 15