Finding Solutions to Africa’s Pro-Poor Growth for Development: A Case Study of Lesotho

Pro-poor growth has become a very popular topic among development practitioners in Africa. Consequently, there is growing recognition that in pursuing a pro-poor agenda for development, Africa could get out of her socio-economic development quagmire. In the pro-poor agenda, what matters is the degree to which economic growth provides opportunities for the poor, and the extent to which the poor can take advantage of those opportunities. This emerging agenda is more holistic and broader than the previous agenda, which often focused mainly on supporting enterprises considered important for the poor. Experience has shown some shortcomings with such interventions, which have sometimes created market distortions or not been sustainable as a result of attempts to “pick winners” or to use public sector agencies or donors to provide services. Despite this recognition, however, overall performance of Africa has been dismal in developing specific pro-poor policy strategies that can enable her to achieve sustained pro-poor growth. Using Lesotho as a case study, the paper explores the experience of Africa in pursuing pro-poor growth agenda with the view to recommend specific policy strategies that are based on the available evidence which will enable her to achieve a sustained pro-poor growth for her development path. The paper uses information taken from books, journals, official reports, newspapers and internet research on pro-poor growth. In reading the books, journal articles, newspapers and reports, the author selected material that is relevant to pro-poor growth debate. The author’s knowledge of Lesotho–where he lived, studied and worked–informed the writing of this paper as well as discussions on the concept of pro-poor growth with specific relevance to Lesotho as a case study for pro-poor growth debates in Africa.