Lesotho Integrated National Financing Strategy

The Integrated National Financing Strategy (INFS) provides Lesotho with a single, coherent framework to mobilize, align, and deploy all sources of finance in support of the National Strategic Development Plan II (NSDP II) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The strategy shifts Lesotho from fragmented, project-based financing to a unified, results-driven national financing system linking planning, budgeting, financing, and delivery.

Towards 2030, Lesotho will adopt a mixed financial model which mirrors short-term fiscal surpluses like Southern African Customs Union (SACU) transfers and water royalties with structural vulnerabilities like revenue volatility, limited capital absorption, declining official development assistance (ODA), weak private investment, and high exposure to climate and trade shocks. The INFS responds by prioritizing the efficiency, resilience, and impact of finance over its volume. It serves as the country-owned framework for translating global financing reforms into concrete fiscal, financial, and institutional actions.

The INFS will mobilize and align domestic and international, public and private finance to close Lesotho’s development financing gap while safeguarding fiscal and debt sustainability. It prioritizes four outcomes: (i) expanded fiscal space, (ii) catalytic use of concessional finance, (iii) increased private investment, and (iv) strengthened system-wide coordination. Climate resilience and gender equality are embedded as core economic and fiscal priorities.

The INFS is closely linked to Lesotho’s Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF). The INFF serves as the country’s coordination architecture, while the financing strategy translates that framework into practical actions, reforms and instruments. By embedding the strategy into the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, the annual budget process and a national monitoring system, Lesotho’s INFF helps ensure that financing is better aligned with national priorities, development partner support is more coordinated and every loti mobilized delivers stronger development impact for the Basotho people.

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