LESOTHO GOVERNMENT ADOPTS SHARED GOVERNANCE EXPERIENCES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH MODELS FROM RWANDA.

History remembers Rwanda for the devastating 1994 genocide that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives shattered the nation’s economy. But the Rwanda of today tells a different story, one of reconciliation, disciplined government and the ambitious one.

As Lesotho gears up for economic development it looks unto economies that have developed more hence it invited Rwanda at the Leadership and Accountability Summit to learn from it.

Speaking at the summit on Wednesday, the Minister of Trade in Charge of Treasury in Rwanda, Mr Kabera Godfrey stated that the first step that was taken after devastation of Rwanda in 1998 was to gather different groups of society to bring in a vision that everyone understood.

He stated that the vision envisaged Rwanda to be an economy that has gender equality at the core.

“We broke the vision down into a series of strategies, poverty reduction strategy and at the time we were driving towards vision 2020, getting people to have food, water, and electricity,” he elaborated.

Furthermore, the Minister explained that Rwanda moved to the next phase of economic development which involved using technology at the higher level.

He said at the phase the country was looking at how agricultural products can be taken to the markets.

Mr. Godfery stated that the country later moved to the phase of transformation in which it looked into how service delivery could be done in a much more advanced way and how corruption could be dealt with.

“Today we are looking unto how we increase exports and making agriculture commercial,” he highlighted.

He hinted that all interventions need to be implemented with a strong monitoring and evaluation framework.

Mr. Godfrey emphasized that in Rwanda, accountability is demanded from every step. He stated that the first accountability is accountability to oneself.

Additionally, he said engagement with the private sector should be taken at the high level as it creates jobs and mobilise resources. As a result he pointed out that the government should not forget to involve private sector even at planning level.

Apart from that he stated that the government should involve the youths at decision making level because they bring so much of the energy to drive the agenda for development.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Dr Rets’elisitsoe Matlanyane while making a presentation on National Strategic Development Plan II, said the natural resources of Lesotho are very important and needs to be used responsibility and nationally beneficial.

Dr. Matlanyane said there has been much development in Tourism as there was a 30.9% increase of international visits from other countries.

She said in 2024 there was M542 million revenue collected from international arrivals from M91million in 2023.

“We received 960 221 visitors who came from abroad and 89.6% is visitors from South Africa, ” she explained.

Delivering on health, she said maternal mortality is still high in Lesotho saying many women still die at childbearing.

On the other hand she said child mortality is 3.8%. She said 8.5% of the children under 5 years still die and related to nutrition issues as some are stunted.

She said stunting happens even in the mind due to poor nutrition in the first 1000 days of their lives.

“We give food to children who are already stunted and this shows much at the later stage in life,” she highlighted.

Dr. Matlanyane said it is much important to pay attention to nutrition.

Furthermore, she stated that 82% of the population has access to drinking water. She said the target is everyone should have access to clean water and Sanitation.

She stated that the government has pledged to pay attention to the rural communities in access to clean water and sanitation.

Dr. Matlanyane stated that these issues affect everyone in the country highlighting that if the government can manage to address such issues, the livelihoods will be changed.

Source: Lesotho News Agency [LENA]