Fourth CAADP Biennial Review Brief: Lesotho. Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard Performance and Lessons

Hagos, Fitsum; Matchaya, Greenwell.; Moloinyane, S. 2025. Fourth CAADP Biennial Review Brief: Lesotho. Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard Performance and Lessons. Kigali: Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), AKADEMIYA2063. 12p.

The Malabo Declaration on accelerated agricultural growth and transformation for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods is a set of goals adopted by Heads of State and Government of the African Union in 2014 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (AUC 2014). To translate the seven Malabo commitments into results, a call for action was made by the Heads of State and Government for the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Union Development Agency NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), in collaboration with partners, to initiate a review process to be conducted on a biennial basis starting 2017, with an objective of tracking, measuring, and reporting progress toward achieving the Malabo Declaration commitments by 2025.

Four Biennial Reviews (BR) have been conducted—the inaugural BR in 2017, the second BR in 2019, the third BR in 2021, and the most recent BR concluded in 2023.

As part of fulfilling Commitment 7 on mutual accountability, the fourth BR Report (BR4) and the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS) were launched at the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU Heads of State and Government in March 2024 (AUC 2024).

This brief focuses on Lesotho's performance in BR4. The authors assess Lesotho's progress at the country level before presenting a regional comparison between Lesotho and other countries in the SADC region. They conclude by highlighting the required policy actions for the country to meet the Malabo Declaration commitments by 2025.

A key recommendation from the analysis indicates that Lesotho needs to strengthen data systems tracking CAADP Process Completion Index parameters, as well as general agricultural performance data, while enhancing government agricultural expenditure as a share of total public expenditure.