Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), 29th July 2019: An African Development Bank delegation has concluded a dialogue with representatives of the Kingdom of Lesotho to prepare for the country strategy 2020-2024. The dialogue in Lesotho on Friday 26th July 2019 related to the two proposed pillars of implementation: (i) strengthening value chains for sustainable and inclusive growth and job creation, and (ii) leveraging technology for improved governance and institutional capacity.
The delegation engaged with government officials, private sector, development partners, and non-governmental organisations, following the launch of the national strategic development plan II (NSDP II, 2018/19 - 2022/23), in April 2019, which set out four priority sectors, namely agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and creative arts and technology and innovation.
The delegation met with the Deputy Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Mamakopoi Letsie, and exchanged views on the priority sectors, the implementation of the economic laboratories, emerging challenges, the country's expectations, and on the next country strategy cycle.
It was agreed that the new strategy should concentrate on creating jobs through private sector-led inclusive growth, outlined in the NSDP II. George Kararach, lead economist at the Bank's Southern Africa office commented, "The assessment of the current strategy... has informed the preparation of the new one running from 2020-2024. It is worth mentioning that the two pillars of the new strategy are consistent with the NSDP II".
Following the delegation's initial stakeholder engagement exercise in March 2019, the results of this mission, the two pillars of implementation, constitute an appreciated road map. They are aligned with the Bank's comparative advantages, the government's development agenda as outlined in NSDP II, and the available resources. The Bank will also leverage support for the delivery of both pillars from the country's development partners, also taking into account their comparative advantages.
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