Funding

Development Alternatives Initiative (DAI)

The SMME Support Network- Lesotho has partnered with the DAI in order to provide Support to Women in Export Trade. More specifically, to enhance its Business Development Service (BDS) providers’ competency in facilitating training and capacity building of Women in Export Trade in Lesotho with a view to assisting the women to increase opportunities to export trade, overcome Non- Tariff Barriers (NTBs) to trade in goods, improve export performance, and contribute to poverty reduction.

Through the support, 20 Network BDS providers have been certified in Export Trade Development for Women and 48 export ready and near-ready Crop, fruit Cosmetics and Natural Ingredients MSMEs, majority women, have already received training in Introduction to Export Trade in Maseru. Two cohorts of MSMEs in the Crop, fruit Cosmetics and Natural Ingredients subsectors were trained during the weeks of 29 August – 2 September and 12-16 September.

DAI provides management and technical support services to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to support the TFSA programme. This programme gives both capacity building and technical assistance to help grow trade and find targeted solutions to improve gender equality in trade to alleviate poverty across the SACU+M region (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa).

The main activities included in the programme are:

1. Increased access to information and trade promotion;
2. Support in compliance with market standards and integration in supply chain/value chains;
3. Trade and customs training and improving access; and
4. Equality for women in trade.

This programme expects to: increase opportunities to trade; overcome non-technical barriers ( NTBs) to trade in goods; improve export performance, and in doing so contribute to poverty reduction and have a gender positive impact on trade in SACU+M, as well as to help facilitate trade continuity between SACU+M countries and the UK post-EU exit.

Our Sources

GTZ/SMME project Now GIZ

The Network has up to now been successful in their efforts to address the MSME issues with the assistance of the Democratic Republic of Germany through the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ/SMME Project) in the years, 2000-2002. Through the project the service providers do recognise and appreciate the extent of their role in SMME development.

Kellogg Foundation

Kellogg Foundation has assisted the Network in “strengthening of the capacity of Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises in Lesotho to develop sustainable programs in the local and rural communities”. Through the assistance advanced training programs were adopted and adapted and “SMME News” Newsletter was published and distributed countrywide and internationally through diplomatic missions, best practices in SME development were benchmarked through seminars and conferences.

EU- Non State Actors

With the assistance of the EU-Non-State Actors project, the Network developed its first Business plan from its strategic plan for direction.

African Development Bank

The African Development Bank (AfDB) through Fund for African Private Sector Assistance project ( 2018-2021) has extended assistance in the form of establishment of a Shared Service Facility where Business Associations and MSMEs can access services and technology . The main purpose for introducing shared services is to assist business associations to reduce overall costs; minimize duplication of services across their organizational units; improve effectiveness of internal services; determine ways to sustain service functions; strengthen participation and voice of members;

The project also focused on Expansion of the Business development Services (BDS) market where the intervention comprised:

• Strengthen capacity of BDS providers (through training and seminars) to provide complete package of services to start-up and existing entrepreneurs, i.e. full entrepreneurship, business management and expansion package to ensure sustainable enterprise development.
• Development and management of BDS market database accessible by SMMEs, financial service providers, policy makers and other stakeholders,
• Establishment of BDS certification leading to accreditation system/program to ensure quality service to SMMEs to accelerate growth and development of the sector;
• Development of Monitoring and Evaluation system for impact assessment