Development Assistance in Lesotho: Is it a National Strategy for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development?

Abstract

This article argues that Lesotho’s increasing reliance on aid leads to economic decline, worsening living standards and eventually poverty, thus obstructing sustainable development. Studies done in the country are silent about the effect of aid on poverty reduction and sustainable development. The study fills this missing link in the literature. Aid as a resource must help a country to enable its citizens to live beyond consumption by creating other activities that will in the long-run, reduce vulnerability and poverty; thus promoting sustainable development, which is contrary to what has been prevailing in Lesotho. The worst scenario in Lesotho is the post-independence period, where almost all aid combined failed to bring the desired changes in the lives of the majority and instead, increased vulnerability and poverty, and resulted in unsustainable development.