Information about Lesotho | ASCL Country Portal - Information about African countries

Lesotho (Listeni/lɨˈsuːtuː/ li-soo-too), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, completely surrounded by its only neighbouring country, South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population slightly over two million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Lesotho translates roughly into the land of the people who speak Sesotho. About 40% of the population live below the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day.

From Wikipedia

General information

Representation of (tentative) African heritage sites on the World Heritage List which is maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).UNESCO World Heritage List
The African Union (AU) was founded in 1999 with the goal of accelerating the process of integration in the continent, to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation. African Union member
A website with entries on Lesotho, its people, history and language, including a English-Sotho wordlist.Lesotho from A to Z
LCN is an umbrella body of NGOs in Lesotho that offers support through leadership training, information dissemination, capacity building, coordination, advocacy and representation when dealing with the government and the international community. Its newsletter is downloadable.Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (LCN)
ecoi.net, the country of origin information system of the Austrian Red Cross’ department ACCORD, aims at contributing to fair and efficient refugee status determination procedures by securing easy and fast access to high-quality and up-to-date country of origin information (COI) for all actors involved in asylum cases.ACCORD country of origin information

Government, law, politics and elections

ECOLEX is an information service on environmental law, operated jointly by FAO, IUCN and UNEP. Its purpose is to build capacity worldwide by providing the most comprehensive possible global source of information on environmental law. The ECOLEX database includes information on treaties, international soft-law and other non-binding policy and technical guidance documents, national legislation, judicial decisions, and law and policy literature. Users have direct access to the abstracts and indexing information about each document, as well as to the full text of most of the information provided. ECOLEX environmental law
FAOLEX is a database of national legislation, policies and bilateral agreements on food, agriculture and natural resources management. The FAO Legal Office also collaborates with other FAO and non-FAO initiatives by facilitating the integration of FAOLEX data into separate platforms or by the systematic exchange and linking of information.FAOLEX associated databases
The Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa (ICLA) is a research institute located in the Faculty of Law of the University of Pretoria. The ICLA was established at the beginning of 2011. Drawing on the extensive networks that the Faculty has established over many years in Africa and beyond, the objective of the ICLA is to become a first port of call for those who wish to engage in legal research and legal reform in Africa involving comparative or international law at the advanced level. ICLA offers country reports in PDF format. Institute for Intl. and Comparative Law in Africa
A directory of embassies worldwide.Embassy Worldwide
The African Legal Information Institute (AfricanLII) is a project of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU) at the Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town. It was incubated at the Southern Africa Litigation Center (SALC). AfricanLII's main goal is to promote Free Access to Law and Open Justice in Africa. AfricanLii access to law
The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is a free, independent and non-profit global legal research facility. WorldLII provides a single search facility for databases; the WorldLII Catalog provides links to over 15,000 law-related web sites in every country in the world. WorldLii legal information
UN ILO Database of national labour, social security and related human rights legislation.Intl. Labour Organization NATLEX database

Crisis, conflict, security

This index (formerly the Failed States Index), created by The Fund for Peace, has put countries into perspective by providing an annual snapshot of their vitality and stability (or lack thereof) and ranking them accordingly.Fragile States Index
The Global Observatory provides timely analysis on peace and security issues by experts, journalists, and policymakers. It is published by the International Peace Institute. The views expressed here represent those of the contributors and not IPI.IPI Global Observatory
Stratfor is a geopolitical intelligence platform that brings global events into valuable perspective. Worldview is the primary source for Stratfor’s published geopolitical analyses and forecasting. Stratfor Worldview
The Africa Center is a U.S. Department of Defense institution established and funded by Congress for the study of security issues relating to Africa and serving as a forum for bilateral and multilateral research, communication, training, and exchange of ideas involving military and civilian participants. Its mission is to advance African security by expanding understanding, providing a trusted platform for dialogue, building enduring partnerships, and catalyzing strategic solutions.Africa Center for Strategic Studies
Established in Washington, D.C., over 50 years ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to providing strategic insights and policy solutions to help decisionmakers chart a course toward a better world.Center for Strategic and International Studies
This information portal of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and BICC provides background information on issues regarding security policy.War and Peace security policy issues
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Council on Foreign Relations
Provides the current travel advice of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Dutch). Reisadviezen Rijksoverheid (Dutch)

Human rights

From villages in rural India to the corridors of power in Brussels, Transparency International gives voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption. We work together with governments, businesses and citizens to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals.Transparency International

Economy

The legal currency used in this country (Wikipedia).National currency (Wiki)
The Central Bank of this country.National Central Bank
The Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI) is an intergovernmental organisation that provides a platform for peer learning and exchange for African ministries of finance, budget and planning. The Budgets in Africa section provides up-to-date and regular information on African national budgets. Here you will be able to access publicly available budget documentation for African countries, since 2010.Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative
The Observatory of Economic Complexity is a tool that allows users to quickly compose a visual narrative about countries and the products they exchange. It was Alexander Simoes' Master Thesis in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab.Observatory of Economic Complexity
The CCBG consists of 15 Governors from the SADC (Southern African Development Community) central banks. The CCBG deals with the development of financial institutions and markets, co‑operation regarding international and regional financial relations, and monetary, investment and foreign exchange policies. Committee of Central Bank Governors in SADC

Development

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is a leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. ODI works with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries. You may also want to use the website search function, or see: https://www.odi.org/our-work/sub-saharan-africa.Overseas Development Institute
The Indices of Social Development (ISD) hosted by ISS brings together 200 indicators, synthesising them into a usable set of measures to track how different societies perform along six dimensions of social development (data available for download as .slx, .csv, or .odf)ISS Indices of Social Development
The Country Information Portal provides overview and consolidation to more than 80 countries. The individual country contributions are subdivided into five subject areas and thus cover a broad spectrum of relevant aspects of international cooperation. This information is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), as part of the project "Key Qualifications for International Cooperation". In German.LIPortal country information (German)
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to conduct in-depth research that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society at the local, national and global level. Brookings brings together more than 300 leading experts in government and academia from all over the world who provide the highest quality research, policy recommendations, and analysis on a full range of public policy issues. The research agenda and recommendations of Brookings’s experts are rooted in open-minded inquiry and our 300+ scholars represent diverse points of view. Research topics cover foreign policy, economics, development, governance and metropolitan policy. Brookings Institution
SciDev.Net is the world’s leading source of reliable and authoritative news, views and analysis about science and technology for global development. Our Mission is to use independent journalism to help individuals and organisations apply science to decision-making in order to drive equitable, sustainable development and poverty reduction. SciDev.Net is part of CAB International (CABI) - a not-for-profit organisation that improves people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.SciDev.net
The Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) is responsible for designing European international cooperation and development policy and delivering aid throughout the world.EC International Cooperation and Development
International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) is a global initiative to improve the transparency of development and humanitarian resources and their results to address poverty and crises.International Aid Transparency Initiative
LNDC is the main parastatal charged with implementing industrial development policies in Lesotho.Lesotho National Development Corporation
The overarching objective of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group is to spur sustainable economic development and social progress in its regional member countries (RMCs), thus contributing to poverty reduction.African Development Bank Group
Blogging platform with guest post about Africa. This category is about development issues. The content is shared with partner platforms such as The Guardian African Network, Christian Science Monitor and the European Centre for Development Policy Management. Africa on the Blog

Sustainable Development Goals

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics provides data for the Sustainable Development Goals.UNESCO SDG4 Data explorer

Food, water, land and health

The UNEP-DHI Partnership is a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) centre of expertise dedicated to improving the management, development and use of freshwater resources from the local to the global level. UNEP-DHI Publications
AQUASTAT is FAO's global water information system, developed by the Land and Water Division. It is the most quoted source on global water statistics. FAO Aquastat
FAO Global Info and Early Warning System Country Briefs provide up to date information on the food security situation of monitored countries. The Country Briefs include information on the current agricultural season and the harvest prospects for the main staple food crops and livestock situation. In addition, the Briefs provide estimates and forecasts of cereal production and imports together with food price and policy developments.FAO Global Info and Early Warning System
The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP) has reported country, regional and global estimates of progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) since 1990. The JMP maintains an extensive global database and has become the leading source of comparable estimates of progress at national, regional and global levels. JMP Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene
The FAO Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profiles provide a comprehensive overview of the fisheries and aquaculture sector for each country (or areas/territories recognized by the Organization and with important fishery sector).FAO Statistics Fishery and Aquaculture
The Gender and Land Rights Database (GLRD) was launched by FAO in 2010 to highlight the major political, legal and cultural factors that influence the realisation of women’s land rights throughout the world. It also serves as a platform to address, discuss and provide information about gender and land issues with the support of 84 Country Profiles, Land Tenure Statistics disaggregated by gender, and a Legal Assessment Tool for gender-equitable land tenure (LAT).FAO Gender and Land Rights Database
Part of the World Health Organization's website, with statistical information, health profiles, WHO collaboration, mortality and burden of disease, nutrition and risk factors. UN World Health Organization
UNFPA works in more than 150 countries and territories that are home to the vast majority of the world’s people. Its mission: to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. This website provides data on population, pregnancy, birth, health and more.UN Population Fund
The Global Health Observatory theme pages provide data and analyses on global health priorities. Each theme page provides information on global situation and trends highlights, using core indicators, database views, major publications and links to relevant web pages on the theme.WHO Global Health Observatory
African Health Stats is an innovative data site that allows you to chart, map and compare key health indicators across all 55 African Union member states. All data is taken from officially-recognised international sources.African Health Stats

Climate, environment, energy and resources

The Africa Energy Portal (AEP) is a one-stop-shop for energy sector news, insights, data and more. Launched in November 2018, the AEP focuses exclusively on Africa, serving as a repository for accurate and relevant information and data across the energy value chain. Africa Energy Portal
Faces of Energy is an interactive data visualization that maps stakeholder engagement on gender equality, social inclusion and women’s empowerment at the intersection of sustainable energy and climate change agendas.Faces of Energy
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, a centre of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy. IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity.International Renewable Energy Agency
The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), have developed an ATLAS OF AFRICA ENERGY RESOURCES to graphically illustrate where the resources are, where the potential for expansion occurs and what the possible impacts on the environment could be. It provides visual information on the challenges and opportunities to providing Africa’s population with access to reliable, a fordable and modern energy services. Atlas of Africa Energy Resources
Publications, blogs, data visualizations, graphs and maps by the World Resources Institute.World Resources Institute
The USGS annual reviews from the 'Minerals Yearbook Volume III: Area Reports-International-Africa and the Middle East' are designed to provide timely statistical data on mineral commodities in various countries. Each report includes sections on government policies and programs, environmental issues, trade and production data, industry structure and ownership, commodity sector developments, infrastructure, and a summary outlook.US Geological Survey Minerals Information
Launched at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in 2005, the role of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) is to help improve the lives and economic well-being of millions of Africa’s people through encouraging, supporting and promoting increased investment in infrastructure in Africa, from both public and private sources. With a focus on regional programmes and initiatives, the ICA helps to facilitate infrastructure development in the water, transport, energy and ICT sectors. Infrastructure Consortium for Africa

Other data and statistics

The UN Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) project is a joint initiative of the United Nations Statistics Division and UN Women that seeks to improve the integration of gender issues into the regular production of official statistics for better, evidence-based policies. Select a country to see statistics for a minimum set of gender indicators.UN EDGE Gender Statistics
The United Nations Statistics Division collects, compiles and disseminates official demographic and social statistics on a wide range of topics. Data have been collected since 1948 through a set of questionnaires dispatched annually to over 230 national statistical offices and have been published in the Demographic Yearbook collection. The Demographic Yearbook disseminates statistics on population size and composition, births, deaths, marriage and divorce, as well as respective rates, on an annual basis. The Demographic Yearbook census datasets cover a wide range of additional topics including economic activity, educational attainment, household characteristics, housing characteristics, ethnicity, language, foreign-born and foreign population.UN Population Censuses' Datasets
DataReportal is designed to help people and organisations all over the world to find the data, insights, and trends they need to make more informed decisions. Datareportal Global Digital Insights
The database currently contains data about UNHCR's populations of concern from the year 1951 up to 2017 and you can use it to investigate different aspects of these populations: their general composition by location of residence or origin, their status (refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, etc.), their evolution over time, and so on.UNHCR Population Statistics
The Population Reference Bureau (USA) analyzes demographic data and research to provide objective, accurate, and up-to-date population information in accessible formats.Population Reference Bureau Intl. data
The use of public-private partnerships to design, build and deliver infrastructure worldwide has grown significantly in the past decade. Yet the availability of reliable information to help governments and advisors design and deliver projects well, has lagged behind. The PPP Knowledge Lab brings together the most relevant and authoritative resources on public-private partnerships in one location to empower governments and their advisors to design and deliver best in class infrastructure projects. Public-Private Infrastructure Partnerships
The Global Infrastructure Hub aims at connecting the global infrastructure community and sharing insights to facilitate delivery of G20 members’ economic, social and environmental outcomes through more and better infrastructure. The GI Hub works with public and private sectors globally to increase the flow and quality of infrastructure projects around the world. We share data, knowledge and leading practices, and help the public and private sectors work more closely to deliver crucial public infrastructure projects.Infrastructure Knowledge Exchange
UNCTADSTAT country profiles are selections of key economic statistics by country. They include a wide range of internationally comparable indicators allowing users to compare statistics across countries. The maritime profiles provide a basic snapshot of a country's situation regarding maritime transport and international trade, facilitating convenient cross-country comparisons.UNCTAD statistics maritime profiles
The Global Slavery Index provides a map, country by country, of the estimated prevalence of modern slavery, together with information about the steps each government has taken to respond to this issue. This information allows an objective comparison and assessment of both the problem and adequacy of the response in 167 countries.Global Slavery Index
Internet usage statistics for every country in the world.Internet World Stats

Map of Lesotho
Lesotho on Google maps

Publications

Directory of Open Access Journals - DOAJOpens external covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. The link provided here gives results restricted to Social Sciences.Directory of Open Access Journals
NARCIS is the main national portal in the Netherlands for those looking for information about researchers and their work. NARCIS provides access to scientific information, including (open access) publications from the repositories of all the Dutch universities, KNAW, NWO and a number of research institutes, datasets from some data archives as well as descriptions of research projects, researchers and research institutes.NARCIS Academic Information System
African Journals Online (AJOL) is a collection of over 380 peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals. AJOL provides access to citations, and where available to abstracts and/or full-text. The link provided here is a Google site search. You may also browse the journals by category or country, or browse only Open Access titles.African Journals Online
IDEAS is the largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and available freely on the Internet. Based on RePEc, it indexes over 2,600,000 items of research, including over 2,400,000 that can be downloaded in full text.IDEAS Economics database
The FAO Corporate Document RepositoryOpens external houses FAO documents and publications, as well as selected non-FAO publications, in electronic format. It includes publications dealing with food, food security, agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, and rural development. Please add search terms yourself (for example country name).FAO Documents
BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) is one of the world's most voluminous search engines especially for academic web resources. BASE provides more than 140 million documents from more than 6,000 sources. You can access the full texts of about 60% of the indexed documents for free (Open Access). BASE is operated by Bielefeld University Library. The links in this portal for each country are queries for open access documents.Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
OECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics and is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. It replaced SourceOECD in July 2010. OECD iLibrary also contains content published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and the International Transport Forum (ITF). OECD iLibrary
DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses. DART-Europe is endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche), and it is the European Working Group of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD).DART-Europe E-theses Portal
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa ASKIA (Access to Scientific Knowledge In Africa) database provides access to many (scientific) publications. You can search for a country name, and limit the results to the availability of full-text.UNECA Access to Scientific Knowledge in Africa
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library provides research and information to support the work of United Nations Member States. As an integral part of the UN Organization, the Library also aids in the dissemination of UN information to a wider public audience through online services, and a global depository library network.UN Dag Hammerskjöld Library

Education

The AAU (Association of African Universities) TV is your one stop place for all information on Higher Education in Africa. We bring you news spanning the continent and beyond as well as intriguing discussions and interviews on the AAU Talks. We also give you an insight into the wonderful universities in Africa as well as some documentaries.AAU TV Talks and Documentaries
The UINESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) Global Education Database provides internationally comparable data on all levels of education for more than 200 countries and territories.UIS Global Education Database
The Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SEACMEQ or SACMEQ) is to undertake integrated research and training activities that will expand opportunities for educational planners and researchers to: (a) receive training in the technical skills required to monitor, evaluate, and compare the general conditions of schooling and the quality of basic education, (b) generate information that can be used by decision-makers to plan the quality of education, and (c) to utilize innovative information dissemination approaches and a range of policy- dialogue activities in order to ensure that SEACMEQ research results are widely discussed, debated, and understood by all stakeholders and senior decision-makers and then used as the basis for policy and practice.Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality
The HAQAA (Harmonisation of African Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation) Initiative, funded by the European Union in partnership with the African Union, has been established to support the development of a harmonised quality assurance and accreditation system at institutional level, national, regional and Pan-African continental level. The Initiative is currently being implemented by a consortium consisting of the University of Barcelona (coordinator), the Association of African Universities (AAU), the European University Association (EUA), the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Education Quality Assurance initiative
The International Bibliographic Database on Higher Education (HEDBIB) is a unique resource of references and publications on higher education systems, administration, planning, policy and evaluation from around the world. Links to electronic publications are provided where freely available. New higher education publications are identified by the IAU Information Centre monitoring team. Bibliographic Database on Higher Education
Education Sub-Saharan Africa was founded in 2016 to join up, inform, inspire, focus and increase impact for everyone investing in education in sub-Saharan Africa. African Education Research Database
The UNESCO World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE) brings together data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), other national household surveys and learning assessments from over 160 countries. Users can compare education outcomes between countries, and between groups within countries, according to factors that are associated with inequality, including wealth, gender, and ethnicity and location. Users can also create maps, charts, infographics and tables from the data, and download, print or share them online.World Inequality Database on Education
UNESCO website dedicated to education in Africa, with blogs, links to databases, information on SDG4.UNESCO Education in Africa
University World News is the first high-quality truly international newspaper and website, dedicated to providing such coverage. Supported by some of the world’s most experienced education journalists, and aimed at higher education readers worldwide, it is offering a weekly emailed newspaper plus access to a dedicated news website – free of charge. University World News comprises a network of some five dozen education journalists based in more than two dozen countries, with representation in all regions. Our journalists are respected senior reporters who have been prolifically published in international and national newspapers and magazines. University World News
Museums in Africa on Wikipedia.Museums in Africa (Wiki)

Movies and images

Africa Focus brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary resources: research and teaching materials collected by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable items related to these fields held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. This collection contains more than 3000 slides, 500 photographs, and 50 hours of sounds from forty-five different countries.University of Wisconsin Africa Focus
The African Media Program (AMP) offers an online, comprehensive database of films, videos, and other audio-visual materials concerning Africa as well as education services about African media. The AMP is a project from Michigan State University's (MSU) African Studies Center, a Title VI National Resource Center in African Languages and Area Studies.The African Media Program
Africa in the Photobook is a website initiated in 2015 by photographer and (photo)historian Ben Krewinkel. The website is about the changing visual representation of Africa as expressed through the medium of the photobook. By showcasing book spreads the books become partly accessible to a wider public and function as a platform for students, collectors and experts to talk about the content of the books. Africa in the Photobook
Videos on DailyMotion.Videos on DailyMotion
The South Africa Quilt History Project (SAQHP) is a trans-national research project to facilitate a network of individuals and institutions committed to creating access to digital texts and images related to South Africa's rich heritage of quiltmaking. Part of the Michigan State University (MSU) Matrix project. South Africa Quilt History Project