EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Government has developed the Information and Communications Technologies
(ICT) Policy as tool to enable Lesotho to achieve its development goals as articulated in
the Lesotho Vision 2020 Policy Document and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.
The policy supercedes the Lesotho Telecommunications Policy of 1999, which has
basically set up the appropriate institutional framework for policy formulation, regulation
and operations in the Telecommunications sector. While one of the major goals of the
1999 policy was to encourage the deployment of ICT infrastructure in the country, this
particular policy takes the mandate further to give direction as to how the proposed
Information and Communications Technologies could be utilised to open up new
opportunities, improve service delivery and hence ease the grip of poverty on the Basotho
Nation.
The policy paper is structured in such a manner that the first chapter introduces the
concept of ICT. The role of information in development and the importance of ICTs are
introduced after a brief explanation of ICT has been provided. The picture is then
completed by elaborating on the rationale of this particular policy. The second chapter
considers the guiding principles behind this particular policy. The Vision and mission
together with the overall goals, objectives and the strategies of the policy are articulately
spelt out in this section of the document.
The various stakeholders and the roles they are expected to play towards the actualisation
of the policy goals are presented in chapter 3. Specifically, the policy identifies ten cross
cutting catalysts that would provide the strategic framework needed to guide the
successful implementation of the policy. These are ICT supporting infrastructure,
Education and Human Resource Development, Enabling Legal and Regulatory
framework, Rapid Delivery of ICT Services, E-Government, E-Commerce, Health,
Agriculture and Food Security, Tourism and Environment and lastly, Gender and Youth.
Each of the above cross cutting issue is dealt with under its own section. There is a brief
introduction for each of these issues, which explain its importance, and where the country
ICT Policy for Lesotho
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