WFP mobile money transfers help change the lives of vulnerable people in Lesotho
ECHO support to Lesotho under COVID-19 has led to sustainability
By Malehloa Letsie
Each morning, 65-year-old Mary Thakane Thabaneng sits on a repurposed oil bucket outside her home, watches the sunrise, and worries a little less about where her next meal is coming from. Her small vegetable garden is her hope to sustain herself and her family. However, the brutal cocktail of climate change, a worsening economy, and the onslaught of COVID-19 in Lesotho has Mary wondering if her tiny patch of green may soon cease to exist.
Mary is one of the many people in Lesotho who are facing hunger due to worsening climate-related shocks. As the sole provider for her grand-daughter and two children, one of whom has special needs, Mary depends heavily on her vegetable garden for food and nutrition. However, year after year, agricultural outputs have suffered with the consecutive late arrival of rains and severe drought conditions.
In March 2020, the Government of Lesotho declared a national emergency followed by a compulsory lockdown for all non-essential services. Even before the lockdown, Lesotho already had serious macroeconomic and social challenges exacerbated by climatic shocks, political instability and decelerated economic growth.
The lockdown resulted in reduced economic activities with the formal and informal business being the hardest hit, resulting in increased food prices with some households losing their income opportunities.
Livelihoods such as casual labour, remittances, brewing, and petty trade were adversely affected. Migrant workers could not return to South Africa due to the closure of borders adversely affecting households depending on remittances. This all resulted in increased urban food insecurity among families that are generally more reliant on salaries and daily wages for food purchases.
Before lockdown, Mary supported her family working as a part time domestic worker however since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, these jobs are scarce and hard to find.
“It has been a very hard year for everyone,” said Mary. “Before COVID-19, I used to get at least one job a week, but now things have changed, and I have not worked in over a month.”
In response and for the first time in its history, the World Food Programme (WFP) Lesotho, with support of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), extended its interventions and provided six months of cash transfers in urban areas, reaching 42 500 vulnerable people in 8 500 households in Mohale’s Hoek, Mafeteng, Quthing, Qacha’s Nek and Maseru, which helped expand the government’s social protection safety net Public Assistance Programme.
Each household received a cash transfer of US$55 per month to purchase food and to take care of other basic needs such as clothing and medicine.
Cash transfers from WFP helped Mary to buy food and other critical products, including maize and vegetable seeds which produced a surplus of crop that she now sells for additional income.
“With some of the money I received I planted life, I planted food so now I worry just a little bit less about feeding my family.” said Mary.
Introducing Mateba Manosa, a 64-year-old mother of five who lives in the Mohale’s Hoek district of Lesotho. Like Mary, Mateba also received cash assistance through WFP from the ECHO contribution.
Before receiving cash assistance, Mateba could not afford to feed herself and her two grandkids, age three and 13, who live with her. Mateba’s income from selling offal, walking house-to-house, came to an abrupt end due to health issues and COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
Mateba owns a field, but due to drought and her bad health, she no longer plants anything.
“Yes, with the cash assistance I purchased food and then started planning on what else I could do with the money,” says Mateba. “I called my daughter who agreed to start a chicken business with me so I purchased 50kg of chicken feed and the following month 50 chicks.”
At first, Mateba and her daughter faced some challenges like maintaining the chicken’s health and hygiene. Market access was also a concern however overcome with her daughter transporting the chickens to neighbouring districts. To date, Mateba and her daughter have not lost a single chicken and made profit of US$131.
“It was a struggle at first to find customers, some people purchased on credit, but eventually I sold all my chickens and then purchased another 100 chicks from my profit,” said a proud Mateba.
Vodacom MPESA mobile money administrated the cash transfers, and households received the money directly to their mobile phones.
WFP is urgently requesting funds to scale up its emergency response in Lesotho. In total, WFP plans to reach 228,555 food-insecure people in 2021 across all activities, including the urban population. Funding requirements from July to December 2021 for all of WFP’s activities in Lesotho is US$ 14.9 million, of which US$ 9.9 million remain to be resourced.
Read more here on WFP activities in Lesotho
