Translating coordination into practice and results in Lesotho 

The Resident Coordinator in Lesotho, Ms. Amanda Mukwashi has helped enhance development coordination to ensure more effective and impactful support of the Government’s development priorities.   

• In 2022, Ms. Mukwashi revived the Development Partners Coordination Forum for more effective engagement of all development partners and the UN Country Team in a meaningful dialogue with the Government on several national priorities, including on such topics as unemployment, food security, climate change, and gender-based violence. The Forum now attracts participation of high-level Government officials, including a recent engagement by the Prime Minister.  

• As part of these efforts, the UN Country Team is now supporting the government in resuscitating the national coordination Forum on Gender and Gender-based Violence, co-chaired by the Minister of Gender and the Resident Coordinator – in recognition that a whole-of-society approach is required to overcome the challenge posed by gender-based violence to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  As a result, gender-based violence is at the forefront of the national development agenda and a joint UN proposal is under development to facilitate resource mobilization. Partners include important private sector companies such as First National Bank and Vodacom, rallying with the UN Country Team to support survivors of gender-based violence.  

• With an estimated 500,000 people (a quarter of the population) facing food shortage and hunger by the fourth quarter of 2022, the Resident Coordinator is also leading the UN Country Team in supporting the national Disaster Management Authority in developing a costed Food Crisis response plan at the request of development partners who are ready to provide financial support. The costed national food insecurity response plan will enable the Government in responding rapidly to the food crisis.  

The Resident Coordinator also plays a key role in leveraging resources to translate strategies into practice.  

• Supported by the Resident Coordinator’s office,  the UN Country Team was successful in obtaining a $1 million grant from the UN’s Joint SDG Fund for a Joint Programme on Economic and Financial Management Integration – involving the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the international Organization for Migration(IOM / UN-Migration) – to support private sector-led economic growth and employment creation by facilitating creation of conducive policy environment, strengthening public financial management processes, providing platforms for dialogue and generating evidence for private–public collaboration. 

• A key step is the preparation of a Development Finance Assessment to map the major development finance resources for the country, providing key recommendations to the Government on targets for each of the development finance streams, building internal capacities and institutional alignment to attract the untapped climate finance funds and leveraging opportunities for blended finance. This will inform the development of an Integrated National Funding Framework, which will contribute to better mobilization of development finance in the country.