Initiative to reduce climate impacts on Basotho women farmers
Greening Women Enterprises' Malintle Kheleli
Photo by Creamer Media's Rebecca Campbell
Lesotho is one of the African countries most exposed to the deleterious effects of climate change. So pointed out Malintle Kheleli of Greening Women Enterprises, which is the flagship initiative of the Lesotho-based women-led civil society organisation, the Geography and Environmental Movement. She was speaking at the 2026 Africa's Green Economy Summit, at Century City Conference Centre in Cape Town, on Thursday.
Most of Lesotho's small-scale farmers and traders were women, she pointed out. Climate shocks were destroying their livelihoods. The problems they faced included energy poverty, deforestation, health risks, land degradation, biodiversity loss and low productivity.
The aim of Greening Women Enterprises is to make the country's women-led rural enterprises climate-resilient and profitable. This is being done by replacing dirty energy with affordable clean energy, and restoring the ecosystems on which agriculture depended.
Solar power is the chosen energy solution, with drip irrigation to maximise productivity while minimising water use. The initiative also provides the requisite training, plus appropriate educational activities, especially in financial literacy.
"There is no development without a monitoring framework," she highlighted. Such a framework was being put in place.
The initiative, and parallel ones in Botswana and Eswatini, had been funded to pilot stage by the US Embassy. But that source of finance was abruptly terminated.
"We are moving away from grant-funded pilots," she reported. They were seeking to develop revenue-generating operations.
To fund infrastructure development, technology and innovation, community engagement, and capacity-building, as well establishing monitoring, evaluation and learning capabilities, they were seeking investment of $2-million over a period of 36 months. This was not a concept, she stressed. "We are pitching something that is already on the ground."
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Goodwin Submersible Pumps Africa is sole distributors for Goodwin electrically driven, submersible, abrasion resistance slurry pumps.
VISIT SHOWROOM
ISO-certified Condra manufactures overhead cranes, portal cranes, cantilever cranes and crane components: hoists, drives, end-carriages, brakes and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
