Part of the University of Lesotho. The Institute of Southern African Studies. serves as one of the principal research centres for identifying, initiating, promoting, and coordinating interdisciplinary, academic and policy-oriented research.   Its area of interest is the Southern African Region - Lesotho, Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This region is tied together by historic, cultural, political, and economic forces which have far-reaching implications for all who live in it. It is the aim of the Institute of Southern African Studies to study such forces and make them comprehensible to those policy and decision-makers who deal with the developmental affairs of Southern Africa.

Mission Statement   To initiate, promote, coordinate and conduct basic, applied and participatory research with particular emphasis to national development needs in a regional context.