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Transformational practices for sustainable livelihoods
Supporting rural development in Lesotho
The OPEC Fund for International Development is supporting a project that will create sustainable livelihoods in Lesotho with a US$19 million loan. The Regeneration of Landscape and Livelihood Project will benefit up to 340,000 people in rural communities in the southern African country, whose economy is largely based on agriculture.
The goal of the program is for rural communities to adopt transformational practices for regenerated landscapes and sustainable livelihoods. The project aims at changing practices of using resources, the reduction of environmental degradation, the improvement of livelihoods and securing funding for landscape regeneration.
The project will be rolled out in the northern, northwestern, central and southern regions of Lesotho, covering around 2,240 villages with 68,000 rural households. Forty percent of the beneficiaries will be women and 20 percent young people who are expected to take advantage from the creation of new income generating activities.
Lesotho had a population of about 2.2 million, and nominal GDP per capita of US$1,091 in 2021, according to the World Bank. Access to arable land is considered one of the major challenges for the country’s development.
The OPEC Fund is joining the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the Global Environment Facility, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the government of Lesotho and others in support of the rural development program.