Concerns have been raised about the exclusionary nature of Lesotho’s ongoing national census, started on 13 April 2026, with disability stakeholders reporting that persons with disabilities and their civil society organisations have not been adequately included in key stages of the process. According to the Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFOD), engagement has been limited to a single, late-stage consultation during questionnaire development, an approach criticised as insufficient and tokenistic. This lack of meaningful participation, according t0 LNFOD, risks undermining the accuracy and credibility of the data being collected, particularly given past inconsistencies in disability statistics.
As a result, Rabasotho Moeletsi, Executive Director of LNFOD, has issued a statement calling attention to these shortcomings as the census process unfolds. He pointed to the unexplained decline in recorded disability prevalence from 3.7% in 2006 to 2.5% in 2016, attributing it to flawed methodologies rather than real demographic change. Moeletsi warned that the current census, if left unchanged, is likely to reproduce the same inaccuracies, thereby reinforcing systemic exclusion in national development planning and resource allocation.
He further described the existing consultation approach as “consultation theatre,” stressing that it excludes persons with disabilities from meaningful decision-making. Limited inclusion of civil society organisations in methodological and planning stages weakens both participation frameworks and accountability systems. This pattern of exclusion discourages sustained engagement, reduces confidence in government consultation processes, and limits the ability of civil society to influence high-level national planning processes in real time.
Considering that the census is already underway, interventions, including from external actors, should shift from broad structural reform to targeted, practical interventions that can still influence implementation in real time. This includes ensuring enumerators are actively reaching persons with disabilities in communities and institutions, and that disability-sensitive field guidance is being enforced during data collection. There is a need for short-term technical assistance, such as simplified disability inclusion checklists for enumerators, quick orientation sessions, and field monitoring tools that help CSOs track whether disability populations are being adequately captured during enumeration. Civil society can deploy light-touch, community-based monitoring—working through local disability networks to identify missed households or inaccessible enumeration practices and escalate these in real time. Finally, a coordinated advocacy message, led by Rabasotho Moeletsi, can keep pressure on decision-makers to correct course while the census is ongoing, emphasizing Lesotho’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the principle of “leave no one behind” under the Sustainable Development Goals.