Lesotho: Climate Risk Analysis & EWS Information Management Systems

Context and Objectives 

Climate change is a potential threat to Lesotho’s extensive water management system, which helps protect the country from the impact of climate events and which contributes significantly to Lesotho's GDP.  Recognizing this, the Lesotho Disaster Management Agency (DMA) instituted the first systematic analysis of Lesotho’s water management system to assess its vulnerability to climate change.

The objective of the analytical study was to assist the Government of Lesotho (GoL) in choosing a sustainable economic development model which takes climate variability and change risks into account. Specifically, the analytical study compared the order of magnitude of economic impacts for different sectors in the long run, so as to guide strategic action by the GoL.

Main Activities and results

The Lesotho Disaster Management Agency (DMA), through technical support by the World Bank and the World Food Programme (WFP), and with funding from the ACP-EU NDRR Program, established and installed the physical infrastructure for an Early Warning System (EWS) in 2015. The EWS would provide effective and timely access to information to improve preparedness and response, through inter-sectoral information sharing and active participation of the local communities to enable multi-dimensional response.

Climate Change Analysis, led by the World Bank, conducted the first systematic examination of the vulnerabilities of Lesotho’s water management system to climate change, by exploring a set of adaptation strategies for a wide range of potential future conditions. Given the importance of water to long-term sustainable economic growth in Lesotho, extensive quantitative and qualitative analyses have been used to identify strategies that demonstrate successful system performance over a wide range of plausible future scenarios. 

The World Bank and the WFP have been working with senior government officials including the Office of the Prime Minister to identify staff which could be trained to work on EWS. In order to achieve its objectives, the project received an ACP-EU NDRR program top up of 200,000 USD for staff capacity building.

The project has successfully completed its main deliverables:

• Design/disseminate early warning information
• Lesotho Water Security and Climate Change Assessment
• Organize Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) workshop
• Develop an information management system

Partnerships and Coordination

The World Bank and the World Food Program were joining efforts to support the GoL in increasing its resilience against disaster risks and destructive climate change.

Useful Links

The report Lesotho Water Security and Climate Change Assessment can be found here.

A Results in Resilience story is accessible here.