The Lesotho Local Development Programme (LLDP) is a collaborative effort by central government, local governments and development partners to achieve poverty reduction through inclusive, responsive service delivery mechanisms. It is a four year programme which is intended to support different aspects of the decentralization process within the three central districts (Maseru, Berea, and Thaba Tseka).

In December 2010 four community led projects were implemented in a joint programme with UNCDF at a cost of $300, 000. Each of the three District Councils received a total of $100. 000 dollars to conduct this pilot programme. The District Councils were responsible for the procurement process (drawing the terms of reference, advertising, identifying contractors , and offering contracts) while the community councils identified villages with great need of water projects. Basically this has been a process largely driven by the councils with little assistance from the central government. 314 households in 4 communities have been provided with safe drinking water after the installation of water reticulation facilities. Working closely with district councils and community councils, a total of 1148 people are now able to draw safe and clean water as a result of these community projects.

The project has also been beneficial for local economic development as five local contractors received the grant and local people were used to provide manual labour. It is estimated that a total of fifty people were temporarily employed across the board. Local business such as small shops, informal business and vendors gained from selling a variety of their products to the workers who stimulated the local economy for the duration of the water project.

It is hoped that with lessons learnt from these projects more projects will benefit out of this joint effort by both UNDP and UNCDF.

The community councils and district councils affected by the project are appreciative of the UNDP\UNCDF contribution and the local authorities have since invited the UNDP management to visit the projects in order to see first-hand how the lives of their subjects have been transformed.