The Agenda 2063 Country Best Practice: Lesotho is a case study report published in 2023 by AUDA-NEPAD as part of a series documenting how individual African Union member states have implemented the goals and aspirations of Agenda 2063 at the national level. The series is designed to enable peer learning, to capture replicable models, and to feed evidence into the continental monitoring and evaluation process.
Lesotho's entry in the series highlights a set of programmes and policy reforms that have advanced specific Agenda 2063 goals under challenging conditions. As a landlocked, mountainous, lower-middle-income country with a small domestic market and strong economic links to South Africa, Lesotho has pursued Agenda 2063 domestically with particular emphasis on Aspiration 1 goals for inclusive economic growth, the Aspiration 6 goals on gender equality and youth empowerment, and the Aspiration 4 goals relating to governance, security and the rule of law. The report documents how national strategies such as the National Strategic Development Plan have been used to align domestic planning cycles with the continental framework.
Among the specific programmes featured, the report highlights progress in expanding access to secondary and tertiary education for young women, improvements in water and sanitation infrastructure that leverage Lesotho's comparative advantage in water resources, and strengthening of public financial management systems. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is referenced as a continental flagship that delivers both domestic economic benefit and regional integration with South Africa.
The report concludes with a set of transferable lessons: the importance of domesticating continental frameworks into national planning instruments; the value of civic education and public communication to build citizen ownership of Agenda 2063; and the need for adequate statistical capacity to track and report progress. Best practices from Lesotho and other member states are available in full from AUDA-NEPAD and feed into the continental database of implementation evidence.