Kingdom of Lesotho

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Lesotho is a small mountainous, and land-locked country, entirely surrounded by its much larger neighbor, South Africa. Previously a British protectorate, the nation gained its independence in October 1966, and is now a constitutional monarchy, currently headed by a constitutional monarch, King Letsie III, and governed by a 33-member senate and a 120-member National Assembly.

According to provisional results from its 2016 Population and Housing Census released by the Bureau of Statistics, the country's population as of April 10, 2016 is 2,008,801.

GDP (PPP): USD 7.0 billion

Unemployment: 27.4%

Inflation (CPI): 7.0

Health Systems Challenges:

Lesotho is experiencing an increasing double burden of diseases characterized by an increase in the burden of non-communicable diseases including cancers, as well as a high burden of communicable diseases.

  • Acute shortage of human resources for health, outdated health legislation, weak partner coordination mechanism.

  • Difficult terrain and Inequities in service delivery are some of the challenges achieving universal health coverage.

  • Weak health systems, inadequate funding allocation coupled with low fund absorptive capacity

  • Climate change and health impact continues to raise challenges to health development.

  • The absence of a functional Sector Wide Approach mechanism creates duplication of efforts and inequities in health service delivery

    This financial year 2018/19, 12.7% of government budget was allocated to health with a decline of 2.7% from 2016/17 Financial year. Eighty –two percent of this allocation is used for salaries leaving less 18% for program implementation and other activities.

Strategic Priority Areas (WHO- 2014-2018)

We aspire to to support the country in the following priority areas derived from the MOH and  WHO-2014-2018 priority areas and

  • Establish national global health agenda and operationalize the Declaration of Alma Ata to ensure universal health care

  • Increased access to maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services ensuring continuum of care throughout the life course and across different levels of the health system, including the community ·

  • Promote diversification of health services for adolescent and adults, including reproductive health services · Support the comprehensive integration of nutrition throughout the lifecycle into the health sector framework

  • Enhance capacity of the national immunization program for effective prevention and control of vaccine preventable diseases, including HPV and HBV·

  • Enhance emergency preparedness and response and implementation of International Health Regulations

  • Promote cost-effective interventions for prevention and control of major NCDs, cancers and for mental health promotion ·

  • Enhance equitable and sustainable access to reduce environmental and occupational health risks faced b Basotho migrant workers including mine workers and domestic workers through promoting global health security

  • Strengthen country health information systems, knowledge management, health research and evidence for better decision making

  • Support alternative/innovative healthcare financing models for equitable access to healthcare

  • Strengthen the organizational and managerial capacity of the national and local health systems for delivering accessible, quality and safe care to the communities with special focus on vulnerable groups

  • Foster and coordinate health sector partnerships advocacy and equity to improve communication among partners and with the Ministry of Health

  • Work closely with and provide technical support the key service delivery partner of MOH Christian Health Association of Lesotho (CHAL)