Livelihoods and Resilience

 Our Goal:

We want to increase the number of children in Lesotho who are well nourished. We are working towards this by:

  • Increasing household income
  • Improving household food security
  • Improving families’ abilities to cope with emergencies
  • Improving on-farm and off-farm management of natural resources
What is the problem?

Widespread poverty remains a main obstacle for economic growth in Lesotho. The agricultural sector, which represents the main source of income for the majority of the rural population in Lesotho, accounts for only 8.6% of GDP. Small harvests and low incomes mean families often lack the ability to provide for their children’s nutritional needs to ensure proper growth and development.  

How is World Vision addressing the issues?

Not only are we working with families to ensure children and families have enough food to eat to meet their nutritional needs by increasing crop and livestock production and productivity. We are also partnering with parents and communities and encouraging them to diversify their incomes with non-agricultural related activities. Finally, we are equipping families traditionally excluded by financial institutions with the tools to save for and invest in their futures through the implementation of savings groups.

Is what World Vision doing working?

Yes! Although there is more work to be done, we are encouraged that 36% of families now have one or more adults earning an income (in addition to agricultural work). We also celebrate that 39.4% of families are now able to provide their children with a diet with sufficient diversity to meet their nutritional needs which have resulted in a reduction of the number of children who are stunted.

What’s the impact?*
  • 1,085 families were trained in income-generating activities
  • 114 small income-generating activities were started and are producing a profit
  • 311 new savings groups established
  • 1,166 households implementing market-orientated crop/livestock production activities
  • 538 households who embarked on new income-generating activities
  • 2,077 youth, women and men trained in improved crop production techniques

*Numbers from 2016 and 2017