About Us

The Strategic Institute for Research and Dialogue (SIRD) is a Pan-African policy think-tank based in Maseru, Lesotho. Its scope of work covers the whole African continent, with its niche anchored on Lesotho’s policy terrain and landscape. The Institute bridges the yawning gap between and among the policy community, the intellectual community, and civil society in Africa in general, as well as Lesotho in particular. Its mandate straddles three main policy domains: democracy and governance, peace and security and socio-economic development and structural transformation. This three-pronged policy mandate of SIRD is informed by our conviction that democracy is often a pre-condition for sustainable peace and vice versa. Democracy and peace are the necessary sine qua non for inclusive socio-economic development. The three policy agendas ought to be pursued simultaneously, if the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people, a majority of whom reside in rural areas, are to be meaningfully improved in Africa in general and in Lesotho in particular. It is for this and other reasons that SIRD believes in the utmost significance of popular participation in policy formulation and implementation as well as monitoring, evaluation, review and reporting on policy outcomes at all levels of society, with particular attention made to the inclusion of the marginalized segments of society such as women, youth, persons with disability, minorities etc. SIRD is meant to play a bridge-building role in African societies through mainly research and dialogue aimed at positively influencing policy across the three domains outlined above.