Turning Lesotho's Mission 300 compact into a programme
AESG led the work that turned Lesotho's Mission 300 National Energy Compact into an operating programme, with a delivery and monitoring unit to run it.
Mission 300 is the World Bank and African Development Bank initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. Each participating country sets out its path in a National Energy Compact.
From January 2025 to April 2026, AESG led the team working with Lesotho's Ministry of Energy and Mining to turn the country's participation into an operating programme.
One picture of the sector
The first step was a single reference point for Lesotho's entire energy landscape: policies, programmes, projects, infrastructure, institutional arrangements and performance indicators. From it, AESG built matrices capturing every identified task against its 2025 baseline, its implementation status and the actions required to reach the 2030 targets, each with a responsible entity, an estimated budget and a funding source.
That turned the compact into something the ministry and its partners can follow task by task: who is responsible, what it costs, where the money comes from, and how far each task has gone.
Five pillars
The work followed the compact's five pillars:
- Infrastructure rehabilitation and development, aligned with the least-cost development plan.
- Regional integration and cross-border power trade.
- Last-mile access through grid extension, mini-grids and rooftop solar, including productive use.
- Private sector engagement across every segment.
- A financially viable utility, with a performance improvement plan.
A unit to deliver it
A plan needs someone to run it. AESG established and operationalised the Compact Delivery and Monitoring Unit (CDMU), which monitors activity across the sector and reports on it, so that problems can be dealt with early. AESG also contributed to the design of the Ascent programme, so that it aligned with the compact's third pillar and the National Electrification Strategy.
Where it stands
- The National Energy Compact is in operation, targeting universal access by 2030.
- Clean cooking and space heating initiatives are under way, aiming for 75% access by 2030.
- The CDMU monitors sector activities and reports on them, so that issues are caught early.
The full entry is in our project record.
