Brief Description

Lesotho like many other developing nations, has been struggling with high unemployment rates with official estimates currently running at around 29.4% (Continuous multipurpose household survey 2009-2010). This dire situation has been as a result of a number of factors including the drastic structural changes to the economy since the 1990s, which depended mainly on ; remittances in foreign transfers for investment in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the garment industry.

This coupled with the triple threat of HIV/AIDS, food Insecurity, Poverty and the dwindling (about 60%) of Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) revenues have meant that Lesotho’s human development indicators have worsened rapidly over the past decade. The net result of the complex crisis is its negative impact on progress towards human development, especially, towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

One aspect of the crisis is the high rate of unemployment among the youth which is estimated at 40%. This situation has not been helped by the existing education, vocational and training systems which have not been able so far, to engage youth successfully in both the formal and informal labour markets.

The Government as part of its strategy to respond to the issues of youth unemployment   adopted a National Youth Policy in 2005 aimed at promoting effective participation of youth in the economic and socio – political development of their country.

The National Volunteer Corps project is one of such programmes designed to serve as a mechanism for young graduates from the university and those from the third level technical training institutions to access volunteer opportunities in various work spaces in the public and the private sector.

Outputs:

To this end, the National Volunteer Corps Project has specifically worked with the Government of Lesotho through the Ministry of Gender Youth Sports and Recreation in:

Supporting the Government of Lesotho set up a National Volunteer Corps Programme at the Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation;

Mobilising over 200 youth graduates to gain practical hands-on working experience to support Lesotho's development efforts;

Complementing ongoing efforts by the Government, private and other national institutions that are working towards implementing various development programmes including the MDGs;

Mobilising over 200 young graduates to gain practical hands-on working experience to support Lesotho's development efforts;

Promoting co-ordination among Volunteer involving organisations in the management of volunteers and their contributions to defines development priorities.

Contact:

Mr. Momoh Jimmy
momoh.jimmy@undp.org