Ntlafatsa Bana – Improvement for Children
Strengthening Social Assistance Systems: Why It Matters?
- Enhanced delivery: a stronger National Information System for Social Assistance (NISSA), and Management Information System for Social Assistance (MISSA) promotes fair, responsive, and inclusive delivery of social assistance services.
- Improved targeting: effective NISSA and MISSA systems help with better targeting, reducing duplication, and improving responsiveness, leading to the efficient delivery of social assistance programmes.
Why Cash Plus?
- Enhanced impact: combining cash transfers with complementary services such as water, nutrition, renewable energy, and child protection enhances the impact of social assistance programmes.
- Reduced vulnerability: linking Child Grants Programme beneficiaries with essential services and interventions such as birth registration, nutrition, access to water, and renewable energy services reduces vulnerability and improves the well-being of children in Lesotho.
Ntlafatsa Bana will achieve its core objective through:
- Working with relevant Ministries to ensure coordinated efforts by providing technical assistance to facilitate and support digital transitions of both payments and birth registrations.
- Engaging communities and community-based organizations and councils in the areas where the project will be implemented.
- Peer-to-peer learning from other countries in the region to adopt best practices.
- Collaborating with other projects and partners, especially those focusing on water and energy components, to maximise impact and improve efficiency.
The Project will focus on:
- Providing technical and financial assistance to upgrade the National Information System for Social Assistance (NISSA), and Management Information System for Social Assistance (MISSA).
- Facilitating access to clean water through rehabilitation of water points in remote and rural areas and encouraging community involvement in maintaining these water points.
- Enabling low-income households’ access to renewable energy products, such as high-efficiency, environmentally friendly cook stoves, and small off-grid solar systems.
- Improving the expansion of birth registration services through the integration of digital solutions for children in remote areas.
- Strengthening platforms for the provision of nutrition education, such as nutrition clubs/ kitchen gardens for growth monitoring, immunization, child protection, and referrals for further support.
Background
Under Equitable Lesotho, the Government of Lesotho, with support from the European Union and its implementing partners, strives to improve the well-being and development of children under five, enhance the effectiveness of social assistance, ensure quality data and statistics, and address the needs of those living in the most vulnerable situations.
As a component of Equitable Lesotho, the Ntlafatsa Bana – Improvement for Children project will be implemented with the support of the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition, Ministry of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police and Ministry of Natural Resources in the following districts and Community Councils: Qacha’s Nek (Telle and Tosing), Quthing (Tele and Tosing), Thaba-Tseka (Bokong and Linakeng), Leribe (Menkhoaneng and Matsoku), and Mohale’s Hoek (Qhoasing and Senqunyane).
Since 2007, Government of Lesotho, European Union Delegation to Lesotho, and UNICEF have been partnering to build a social protection system in Lesotho which has resulted in the creation of the Child Grants Programme (the CGP), the National Information System for Social Assistance (NISSA) and strengthening of the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Social Development. The Child Grants Programme is significantly contributing to the reduction of deprivations among children through enhanced access to essential services such as nutrition, water, and child protection in addition to cash transfers to households.
