Lesotho

Shocks can pressure families into negative coping strategies with significant drawbacks for children’s lives and development particularly for children living in disadvantaged households who are at greater risk of falling into a poverty trap. This paper investigates if unconditional cash transfers can be effective in protecting children against unexpected negative life events. Using two waves of data we found that the Lesotho Child Grant Programme reduced the incidence and intensity of multidimensional deprivation for children living in labour-constrained female-headed households that experienced negative economic or demographic shocks. Programme design in shock-prone contexts should seek to reinforce and widen the protective effect of the cash transfer for the most vulnerable.

A four-step approach was used for the Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment of Lesotho to ensure a high level of participation and engagement of key stakeholders in the consultative process.

Lesotho has experienced impressive economic growth over the past decade with a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 3.6 per cent annually since 2007 and a real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth of 25 per cent in the last decade.1 This growth was largely supported by increased diamond exports. The country is exploring economic diversification in a handful of sectors such as mining quarrying textiles and apparel.

The eTrade for all Initiative launched at the fourteenth Ministerial Conference of UNCTAD in July 2016 is a practical example of how to harness the digital economy in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development notably Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 8 9 and 17. The initiative seeks to raise awareness enhance synergies and increase the scale of existing and new efforts by the development community to strengthen the ability of developing countries to engage in and benefit from e-commerce by addressing seven relevant policy areas.

The eTrade Readiness Assessment of Lesotho focuses on examining seven key policy areas that are most relevant for e-commerce. Within each area critical readiness gaps are identified and relevant recommendations are proposed to overcome barriers and bottlenecks to the growth of digital trade. The Lesotho Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessment is the eighteenth such assessment conducted by UNCTAD since the launch of the Programme in 2017. Lesotho has experienced an impressive economic growth over the past decade with the country experiencing a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 3.6 percent annually since 2007 with its real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increasing by 25 percent in the last decade. This growth was largely supported by increased diamond exports and the country is looking at economic diversification in a handful of sectors such as mining quarrying textiles and apparel. In this context e-commerce can have the potential to boost the country's economic performance and diversify sources of incomes improving accessibility to customers markets and trade information all of which play a key role for development and graduation from the LDC category. Nevertheless the conditions for success require the adoption of a series of fundamental reforms such as having reliable and affordable infrastructure the necessary legal and regulatory framework in place for payments the appropriate solutions with regard to access to finance and building the capacity to respond the needs of the digital economy.