Kingdom of Lesotho : Agriculture Public Expenditure Review
Over 70 percent of Lesotho’s population live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood, and growth in the sector is crucial for poverty reduction. Despite the importance of growth in agriculture, productiv...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/696511563446367867/Lesotho-Agriculture-Expenditure-Review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33140 |
| Summary: | Over 70 percent of Lesotho’s population
live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on
agriculture for their livelihood, and growth in the sector
is crucial for poverty reduction. Despite the importance of
growth in agriculture, productivity remains low and value
addition activities in the sector are limited. Low
investment in agriculture has left the sector vulnerable to
adverse weather impacts and poorly equipped to adapt to
climate change. Low agricultural output and productivity,
poverty, and heavy reliance on food imports are closely
intertwined with food and nutrition insecurity in Lesotho,
which impose high costs on the country. Recognizing the
agriculture sector’s importance for job creation and
inclusive economic growth under a new growth path led by the
private sector, the Government of Lesotho (GoL) selected
agriculture as one of four productive sectors central in its
new national strategic development plan (NSDP) II for
2018-19 to 2022-23, currently under development. To
strengthen the alignment between objectives and the
allocation of public expenditures to the sector, the GoL
asked the Bank for support to agriculture public expenditure
review (AgPER) as part of a larger GoL effort to strengthen
public financial management. The report is structured as
follows: chapter one gives introduction: why an agriculture
public expenditure review for lesotho? Chapter two provides
an overview of the agriculture sector in Lesotho, outlines
some of its main challenges, and provides an overview of the
main policy documents that guide investment in the sector.
Chapter three describes the data and methodology used for
the analysis of this AgPER and is particularly intended for
technical staff who work with agricultural budgeting and
expenditures. Chapter four is the main analytical chapter.
It describes the budget cycle for allocation and reporting
public expenditures to agriculture (PEA); looks at
discrepancies between budgeted and executed amounts;
assesses the nature of PEA between 2011 and 2017; discusses
how Lesotho’s PEA align with its own policy objectives for
the sector as well as with international commitments,
especially under comprehensive Africa agriculture
development program (CAADP); and seeks to understand if the
public support to the sector is of a nature that may crowd
out private investment. Chapter five summarizes the findings
of the analysis and provides recommendations for how to
strengthen effectiveness and quality of public expenditures
to the agriculture sector. |
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