The project, "Greening Women Enterprises: Advancing Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) through Renewable Energy Products for Climate Resilience and Sustainable Green Livelihoods in Lesotho," is implemented by the Geography and Environmental Movement (GEM) in the Bothabothe, Leribe, and Berea districts. Its primary objective is to scale up integrated, women-led renewable energy enterprises and ICM initiatives to enhance climate resilience, restore degraded ecosystems, and promote green economic development. The project addresses the interconnected challenges of climate change, severe land degradation, water insecurity, energy poverty, and rural unemployment. It seizes the opportunity to move beyond fragmented interventions by uniting women's economic empowerment, renewable energy adoption, and ecosystem restoration into a single cohesive framework.
Project overview
Investment opportunity
Investment types sought
Project status
Development stage
Concept
Additional project information
- Lead agency
- Ministry of Finance and Developmnt Planning
Expected impact
5500
Jobs created / supported
Economic & development benefits
- The project delivers significant economic and development benefits by addressing climate vulnerability, energy poverty, and rural unemployment
- It directly targets 3,000 intended beneficiaries, specifically comprising 1,200 women, 600 girls, 600 boys, and 600 vulnerable individuals in Lesotho
- Key economic benefits include scaling up women-led green enterprises, expanding access to green finance, and creating decent jobs through renewable energy products such as solar irrigation, solar water pumps, and food dryers
- Additionally, the project enhances household incomes and food security by promoting climate-smart agriculture, sustainable natural resource management, and diversified green livelihoods
Climate & resilience benefits
- The project delivers critical climate and resilience impacts by addressing Lesotho's interconnected challenges of climate change, land degradation, and water insecurity
- In the short term, introducing renewable energy technologies—such as solar irrigation systems, solar water pumps, solar food dryers, and clean cookstoves—reduces dependence on fuelwood, directly lowering greenhouse gas emissions and halting deforestation and soil erosion across fragile catchments
- Over the long term, community-led Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) and Nature-based Solutions—including gully reclamation, riverbank stabilisation, wetland restoration, and afforestation—restore degraded ecosystems and enhance natural resource governance
- Furthermore, promoting climate-smart agriculture and climate-resilient livelihoods strengthens the adaptive capacity of women, youth, and vulnerable groups against extreme weather and prolonged droughts
Contact
Contact team
For more information about this project, please contact the Commonwealth Investment Platform team.