| Overview : UNDP is the UN global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better and resillient lives . It works with individual countries on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. UNDP Lesotho is implementing its Country Programme (2019-2023) anchored on the Lesotho National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP II) the UNDAF (2019–2023) and guided by the UNDP Strategic Plan (2018–2021). The Programme comprises three pillars: (i) Governance, for Accountability, Social Cohesion and Stability; (ii) Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth and (iii) Environmental Sustainability, Climate Change and Resilience. Lesotho, like other low-income countries around the world has been hit economically by the novel Covid-19 pandemic. Pre-COVID 19, the country was already experiencing an economic recession, since 2017, with increasing socio-economic challenges such as unemployment which affects 27% of women. The IMF shows that the economy of Lesotho contracted by 4.5% in 2020 which came as a result of the public health measures that were put in-place to contain the spread of the virus and its impact, especially the heavy burden that it had on the health system. To address the persistent development challenges and impacts of COVID-19, Government of Lesotho aims to promote sustainable economic growth and a private sector led job creation. However, private sector in Lesotho is under-developed and largely comprised of MSMEs. According to the Lesotho Bureau of Statistics Business Register (2014), MSMEs account for 76% of the private sector economic activities largely in the informal sector. |
