The Government of Lesotho, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is proud to announce the launch of the Lesotho SDG Investor Map. This innovative initiative marks a significant step towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) by mobilizing private sector investment to contribute to the implementation and acceleration of the 20230 agenda.

Background

Lesotho with support from UNDP is piloting the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) to enhance its development finance architecture. The framework provides insights into the development finance landscape and makes strategic proposals on how government can best mobilize various development financing resources from public and private channels that accelerates the implementation of SDGs and national priorities outlined in the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) II. In this context, Lesotho will diversify its development finance envelope by mobilizing more resource from the private sector.

The SDG Investor Map

The SDG Investor Map is an innovative tool available to Country Offices to leverage private finance for the implementation of the SDGs.

What does an SDG Investor Map do?

• Provides investors with market intelligence (data, analysis, and evidence) about investment opportunities and business models that could advance the SDGs in a specific context. 
• Identifies Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) and business models that respond to both SDG needs and policy priorities to guide domestic and foreign investor decision-making.
• Identifies opportunities and bottlenecks in the policy and regulatory environment that can guide UNDP support to governments.

The Lesotho SDG investor map identifies nine Investment Opportunity Areas (IOAs) across five priority sectors namely renewable resources, alternative energy, services, food and beverage, infrastructure, and technology and communications.

Partnerships

The initiative is a collaborative effort involving the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, the Lesotho National Development Corporation (LNDC), and other wide-range of stakeholders from private sector, Civil Society, Academia, Other development Partners with technical support of the UNDP-Sustainable Finance Hub.

Objectives of the Launch

The main objective of the launch event is to convene 150 participants, including investors, businesses, and other stakeholders, to showcase SDG-aligned investment opportunities in Lesotho. The event aims to foster strategic partnerships and provide a platform for networking, enabling participants to make informed investment decisions that support sustainable development and to popularize the identified investment opportunities areas.

The UNDP Lesotho Resident Representative, Dr. Jacqueline Olweya (PhD) “Achieving the SDGs will require an annual investment of $5-7 trillion, with a significant portion expected to come from innovative financing flows. The private sector resources have been identified as a strategic channel through which Governments can mobilize more SDG aligned capital. The SDG investor map therefore propels private sector investment towards impact investments to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and National priorities as identified by the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) II”

The Honorable Minister of Finance and Development Planning. Hon. Dr. Retselisitsoe Matlanyane (PhD) “The Government of Lesotho is committed to harness the power of the private sector into her development agenda. We strive to build a private sector led economy whereby we envisage the private sector as a catalyst in growth and development. Hence our theme “Catalyzing Private Sector Capital for Sustainable Investment"