P a g e | 63 considered, in particular those involved in the HIV&AIDS response. These include: DCPT’s; National Stakeholders Forum; Donor Partnership Forum; Lesotho National AIDS Service Organisations; Lesotho Network of People Living with HIV&AIDS; Lesotho Inter-Religious AIDS Consortium. The lower level of government comprises a Community Council area, which covers either a neighbourhood in an urban area or a cluster of villages in a rural area. The Councils themselves are responsible for supporting the OVC response at local level. Auxiliary Social Welfare Officers are stationed at the Community Council level. UNICEF is a development donor with an outstanding working relationship with the GoL. They provide high level technical assistance and have good rapport with staff members of the MoSD. They have recently funded and led a Mapping & Assessment of Child Protection Systems in Lesotho. This is a consultancy which is due to be finalised in May 2014. Closely linked with this is the consultancy to cost the CPW Act legislation. These two exercises will allow the GoL to better coordinate and budget for children's programming in the future. Letsema Network is an informal network of organisations working in the OVC arena. It is not a co-coordinating or umbrella body, rather it was created to strengthen networking across the many service providers in Lesotho. It is supported and led by Sentebele, a Lesotho-based NGO active in the VC arena. There are some 350 organisations listed by Letsema as being involved in the VC arena, comprising NGOs, FBOs, CBOs, ministries, development partners, and others. Not all are members of their network. Lesotho has cross-border agreements with RSA on crime prevention such as drug adherence (TB & ART), trafficking, and perhaps adoption's in the future. Lesotho is also a signatory to the African Rehabilitation Institute as well as a member of the US organization Social Workers Beyond Borders. Progress There has been decidedly more emphasis on coordination and recognition that duplication is inefficient. The MoSD has made concerted efforts to seek out organizations working with child programming and signed Memorandums of Understanding with them. This is to lessen duplication of services, encourage partnerships between organizations doing like work and to ensure accountability for the standard of service provided. This now means that most programs of CSO's and NGO's tie in with the objectives of the MoSD Strategic Plan for OVC. Difficulties The interim findings of the Mapping and Assessment exercise thus far suggest that although there is a new focus on coordination, it is still an area which is severely lacking.

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