Lessons from Lesotho: How RTIA Partnerships Support Stronger Teacher Policies and Practice

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Regional Teachers Initiative for Africa (RTIA) Facility supports ministries of education in strengthening the teaching profession through demand-driven technical assistance. Lesotho is among the first partner countries to complete a comprehensive package of RTIA supported policy reforms, demonstrating how collaborative policy development can be translated into practical tools, institutional change and concrete plans for implementation.  

Together, the Ministry of Education and Training of Lesotho and RTIA co-developed new policies and frameworks to support teachers throughout their careers and strengthen the education system. Key achievements included a Comprehensive Teacher Policy, new monitoring and evaluation framework of teacher performance, non-monetary teacher incentives, as well as a structure and funding model for an autonomous Teaching Council.  

Co-created solutions strengthened commitment

Collaboration lies at the heart of the RTIA approach. By working closely with ministries and stakeholders, RTIA aims to ensure that policies and tools reflect each country’s context and priorities.

In Lesotho, ministry officials, education stakeholders and RTIA experts worked together to co-develop policies and tools tailored to national priorities and local contexts. This participatory process helped build strong ownership of the policies and tools. As one ministry representative noted, “We were involved in their development, meaning we own them.”  

The commitment of the Lesotho Teacher Service Department played a central role throughout the process. Reflecting on the collaboration from the RTIA EDUFI team, Technical Lead for Education Iina Soiri noted: “What a pleasure to see how committed Lesotho Teacher Service Department has been to this co-development, and the greatest reward is that we have been able to offer them so useful products”.

The strong teamwork within the Teacher Service Department, combined with the flexibility of the RTIA expert teams, were key factors in supporting the process. Ministry representatives particularly valued the ability of the experts to adapt their work to stakeholder feedback and ministry priorities: “We wish we could always have experts as committed as in this partnership.”  

The strong sense of ownership in Lesotho has been matched by a clear commitment to implementing the key policies and tools co-developed with RTIA. Some key policies and tools have already been approved at ministerial level, providing a strong foundation for moving from policy to practice. 

Next steps: turning policy into practice

Moving from policy development to implementation, Lesotho is well positioned to introduce well-functioning Teacher Council, apply the policies and use tools that have been co-developed. The reforms are expected to strengthen teacher management, support professional growth, improve regulation of the profession and contribute to a more coherent education system.  

Lesotho’s experience also illustrates the broader goals of RTIA’s work across Sub-Saharan Africa, co-developing context-specific solutions with ministries, strengthening national ownership and turning policy ambitions into practical reforms. As one of the first RTIA partner countries to complete this phase of cooperation and move towards implementation, Lesotho offers an encouraging example of how collaboration, strong stakeholder engagement and local leadership can contribute to lasting change in education. The cooperation will continue, as Lesotho has already requested further technical assistance from RTIA to support the next phase.