Data in Focus: Issue 1 August 2022

KEY HIGHLIGHTS: 

• Despite progress, about half the population of Lesotho still lives in monetary poverty, which is about a million people. Child monetary poverty also stands at 44.8% and multidimensional poverty at 45.5%.
• The government of Lesotho has been enhancing its social protection system, strengthening the integration, efficiency and credibility of the system.
• A social registry, NISSA, that contains up-todatto date on 90% of the Lesotho household, can be used directly for targeting. Currently, some of the key programmes use NISSA, such as the Child Grants Programme, OVC-Bursary and the Public Assistance programme.
• NISSA includes a process called Proxy Means Test, through which the vulnerable households are categorized into four poverty levels. These poverty categories for each households are vetted by the community and it allows any social assistance programme to target and enroll the most vulnerable into their programmes without any additional cost and time in targeting.