Africa-Press – Lesotho. government of Lesotho through the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning along with the United Nations (UN) and its agencies have set in motion
the two years joint programme aimed at realisation of the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP II) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The US$1.1 million
approximately M16 219 555 programme is expected to run from October 2020 to December 2022 These developments were revealed at the virtual launch of the Joint Program on Economic and Financial Management Integration
for the achievement of SDG’s (JP-EFMIS) on Wednesday. The Ministry of Development Planning Principal Secretary Sello Tšukulu hailed this initiative adding that it could not have come at an opportune time.
He noted that the programme is a “big milestone” which will see the implementation of the NSDP II and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).
“This program will enable the government to realize the NSDP II objectives by helping the
national authorities and stakeholders to identify means of implementation that accelerate attainment of the SDG targets,” he said. The PS added that the government’s achievements are to, “ encourage and promote
effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships; develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels and ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources including
through enhanced development cooperation as are well articulated in the national plans. ” He further committed the government’s determination towards the realisation of the programme.
The PS pointed that the outbreak of the pandemic has thwarted the government’s efforts to achieving the NSDP II goals. He underscored the need to make institutions to be more
“transparent” a move which he argued will assist them to mobilise more funds
and resources from donors and also to “utilise their available resources more efficiently under public scrutiny”. Tšukulu highlighted that the programme will
assist the government to address these. The UN’s agencies which are part of this programme are the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations
International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). UN acting Resident Coordinator Anurita Bains while applauding the government on “considerable gains” in mounting legal and regulatory reforms aimed at strengthening the Public
Financial Management (PFM), she however noted that it lags behind in resource mobilisation. “In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, enhanced PFM will be critical to support the Kingdom’s recovery to build back better.
The Government of Lesotho will face limited resources amidst a heightened need to invest in the economy. Therefore, enhanced PFM, budget accountability, transparency and smart planning, through well-articulated
expenditure frameworks, will allow Lesotho’s resources to stretch further and may enable greater resource mobilization. “The programme will support a more informed national
Covid-19 recovery plan and will include vulnerable groups that were previously omitted from PFM processes: women, youth, persons with disabilities and
migrants. ” Ntšiuoa Jaase from the Ministry of Development Planning said the NSDP II Investment Plan has four key investment priority areas with a total of 118 ongoing capital investment projects and a total
resource requirement of M29.6 billion as at 2018/2019. She also showed that as per estimates that there will be M26.3 billion of resources to be committed towards the capital
expenditure but will leave a shortfall of M3.3 billion. Jaase pointed out that the development partners disbursed to the tune of US$369.61 million equivalent to M5.5 billion to
Lesotho in 2019/20, 7% less than the US$393.97 million about M5.8 billion disbursed in 2018/19. She noted that the disbursements from foundations and international Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) dwindled, while the
disbursements from bilaterals and multilaterals spiked. The 57.5% of resources provided to Lesotho, she said comes from multilateral agencies, 33.5% from bilateral donors and 9.0% from
international NGOs. She said the UN agencies provided the largest amount of development assistance to Lesotho in 2019/20, worth US$99.36 million which
is almost M1.5 billion. The World Bank was the second largest donor, disbursing US$43.65 million approximately M645 million in 2019/20. “Reliance on traditional sources of funding is no
longer sufficient. Access to other sources of finance, including remittances, [Public Private Partnerships] PPPs and [Foreign Direct Investment] FDI, must be
prioritized, which will require a sound political and financial landscape. ” The UN will offer both technical and financial assistance to the government and the programme will be led and coordinated by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Ministry of Development Planning.
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