Under this project, Nathan Associates London Ltd (formerly eme) improved institutional and policy arrangements for the sustainable and efficient management, financing, and delivery of public and private agricultural services in Lesotho.

It developed new models of engagement with the private sector to address the needs of agricultural producers and marketing agents throughout the country and across numerous commodities.

Nathan London managed a seven-person team that provided

• Experts in monitoring and evaluation, and agricultural extension to develop a new agricultural extension/research system based on an action learning approach that directly involves farmers in solving technical and economic problems. After a successful pilot, this approach was adopted throughout the country and formed the basis of government engagement in the rural sector of Lesotho.
• Experts in policy analysis who worked with stakeholders to develop a sector strategy that included gradual phasing out of certain subsidies and a lessening of government involvement in some agricultural marketing parastatals.
• Planning and budgeting experts who worked with the Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperatives, and Land Reclamation and the Ministry of Finance to develop a decentralized system of budgeting based on activities and outputs.
• Assistance to redefine the Ministry’s public role and increase private sector participation in agricultural support services. The project tested new models of public and private sector involvement in extension services throughout the country.

The project also ran a competitive agricultural fund that supported producers, processors ,and communities in developing innovative, pro-poor responses to market constraints.