says Sebabatso must move innovators from the stage to the market
Staff Reporter
UNITED Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Lesotho Resident Representative, Dr Jacqueline Saline Olweya, has challenged young Basotho to turn their ideas into sustainable businesses, calling for stronger partnerships to help youth-led enterprises secure funding, access markets and create jobs.
Dr Olweya said Lesotho had no shortage of young people with talent and innovative ideas, but needed a sustainable support system to help them develop their concepts into viable businesses.
Speaking in an interview with Mohale FM, she said initiatives such as Sebabatso, which provides a platform for young innovators to showcase their ideas, needed to go beyond exhibitions and recognition to provide long-term support.
“Sebabatso has proved that talent is not scarce in Lesotho; what needs to be sustained is an ecosystem that stays with innovators after the applause,” Dr Olweya said.
“We need a predictable pathway: identify talent in all ten districts, provide sustained coaching, connect enterprises to procurement and markets, and offer finance suited to each stage of growth.”
She said strategic partnerships were essential to helping youth-led businesses grow, generate revenue and employ other young people.
“Sebabatso must move young people from the stage to the market—and from applause to scale,” she said.
Dr Olweya said the broader development agenda should ensure that young people were not merely beneficiaries of government and development programmes but active participants in building the country’s economy.
She said her vision for Lesotho was a future in which young people from all ten districts led viable enterprises, created decent employment and used technology to solve local problems.
“The headline I would love to read is: ‘Basotho youth turn ideas into industries’—and ‘Build their future at home’.
“Beneath it, I would want to see young people from every district leading viable enterprises, creating dignified work, using technology to solve local problems and restoring the natural systems on which the country depends.”
She added that public institutions, financial service providers and businesses should be judged partly by how effectively they supported young people to succeed.
Dr Olweya stressed, however, that such progress would require collaboration between the government, communities, civil society organisations, the private sector and development partners, with young people themselves at the centre of the process.
She said the ultimate measure of success would be whether the systems created could continue supporting young people beyond the involvement of individual development organisations.
“And the story beneath that headline would continue to indicate that ‘We did our job’ would not mean UNDP did it alone. It would mean we worked with Government, communities, CSOs, the private sector and other development partners, and most importantly with young people to build an ecosystem strong enough to continue without us,” she said.
Dr Olweya also called for greater investment in climate action that creates employment for young people, particularly those living in rural communities.
She said young Basotho should not be viewed only as victims of climate change but also as potential providers of solutions to the environmental challenges facing the country.
“Climate action should put income in young people’s hands while protecting the mountains, water and soil that sustain Lesotho,” she said.
She noted that rural youth already possessed valuable knowledge of the land, which could be strengthened through access to science, technology and finance.
According to Dr Olweya, employment opportunities could be created through rangeland restoration, watershed protection, climate-smart agriculture, renewable energy, waste recovery and eco-tourism.
She said government and development partners could engage youth cooperatives to provide measurable environmental services, while businesses developed local green supply chains.
She also proposed that technologically skilled young people be supported to develop digital tools to monitor environmental restoration, including measuring land restored and assessing ways to reduce emissions.
Dr Olweya said translating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into tangible improvements in people’s lives was equally important.
She explained that the goals should be understood through their practical impact on communities rather than as distant international commitments.
“SDG 7 becomes clean energy powering homes, clinics, schools and enterprises. SDG 8 becomes a youth-owned business securing its first market and creating jobs. SDG 13 becomes restored land, climate-smart livelihoods and communities better prepared for droughts and floods,” she said.
She added that improving food security required support for farmers and local value chains so that more of the food consumed in Lesotho could be produced and processed locally.
“The SDGs matter when global promises become local progress,” she said.
On gender equality, Dr Olweya said empowering young women should not be presented as a competition between men and women for limited opportunities.
Instead, she argued that equality expanded opportunities for families, communities and the wider economy.
“Gender equality is not a competition for a smaller slice of opportunity; it expands possibilities for families, communities and the economy,” she said.
She called for efforts to address the barriers that continued to hold girls and young women back, including gender-based violence, unpaid care responsibilities and unequal access to finance, networks and decision-making.
At the same time, she said boys and young men should be involved as partners in building a fairer society, including through shared caregiving, respectful relationships and mentorship.
“We move farther when we stop treating equality as loss and recognise it as a shared national gain,” she said. “Equality is not one gender rising over another; it is a nation rising together.”
Dr Olweya urged young women not to allow societal expectations or other people’s discomfort to limit their ambitions.
She encouraged them to prepare for leadership, pursue opportunities even when they did not feel completely ready, and support other women along the way.
“Do not shrink your dream to fit somebody else’s comfort; and do not ask whether you belong in the room—prepare, enter, and help redesign it,” she said.
She also challenged young men to reject violence and harmful gender stereotypes, share responsibilities at home and ensure women had equal access to information, finance and leadership opportunities.
“Your sister’s success does not diminish you. Let your generation be remembered for building a culture of shared dignity and responsibility,” she said.
Dr Olweya said her approach to leadership was rooted in the belief that every person had potential and that leaders had a responsibility to create opportunities for others.
“Leadership is not being the brightest light in the room; it is helping others find their light,” she said.
She explained that her leadership philosophy had been shaped by her early experience as a teacher and by her mother, whom she described as a community leader.
She said teaching had taught her that people often rose to the expectations others placed in them, while her mother’s example had reinforced the importance of service.
“My compass is simple: see the potential, open the door, and widen the circle,” she said.
Dr Olweya said the UNDP’s work in Lesotho sought to narrow the gap between people’s potential and the opportunities available to them.
She cited support for young entrepreneurs, improved access to markets for small businesses, clean energy for rural facilities and stronger public institutions as examples of how development work could improve everyday life.
She said the organisation worked with the government, communities, civil society and academic institutions to test solutions and expand those that proved effective.
“In everyday terms, our work is about shortening the distance between a person’s potential and a real opportunity,” she said.
Reflecting on the challenges of development work, Dr Olweya said leaders often had to make difficult decisions when faced with competing priorities and limited resources.
She said responsible leadership required the use of evidence, honest consultation and accountability for decisions, particularly where communities would bear the consequences.
“Leadership is not promising everything; it is choosing responsibly and building what will last,” she said.
She identified people, purpose and perspective as the three things that sustained her through difficult periods, adding that development was a collective effort rather than the responsibility of one individual.
“Development is a relay, not a solo race,” she said, explaining that progress depended on partnerships and the willingness to keep moving work forward even when systemic change was slow.
Dr Olweya said the long-term goal should be to build institutions and opportunities that allowed Basotho to thrive, with young people equipped to shape the country’s future rather than having to leave home to realise their ambitions.
