By Peye
THABISO NTAOTE
Located within the dramatic highlands of the country, where water sources thread through mountains yet equitable access remains a critical challenge, Women Initiatives Lesotho (WIL) is forging a path of profound community transformation.
Founded in 2022 and formally registered in 2023, this women and youth-led non-profit organization transcends traditional environmentalism, weaving together ecological restoration, socio-economic justice and crucially, the fundamental pillars of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as the bedrock of its mission.
While restoring the natural environment is its genesis, WIL recognizes that true sustainability and empowerment are impossible without addressing the most basic human needs. At its heart, WIL is driven by the vision of its Executive Director, Tleetse Phakoe, currently amplifying her leadership skills as a 2025 Mandela Washington Fellow at Texas Tech University, USA.
Her journey embodies the global-local connection vital to tackling Lesotho’s specific challenges.
Phakoe, a graduate of the National University of Lesotho, founded WIL driven by a deep-seated commitment to her homeland. Her vision was clear: to create an organization that empowered the most marginalized – particularly women and youth – to become active stewards of their environment and architects of their own development.
WIL’s core mission revolves around “strengthening and leveraging systems of governance for local and community development.” This translates into practical, on-the-ground initiatives that address interconnected challenges environmental degradation, food insecurity, social inequality, and critically, the lack of access to clean water, adequate sanitation and proper hygiene practices.
Phakoe’s current fellowship in Public Management underscores this strategic approach.
“I am here learning systems of public management from every angle and every aspect,” she explains, “so that I can navigate ways of localizing these systems for Lesotho, where public systems are not always well-defined at the community level.”
This quest for knowledge is directly applicable to WIL’s work, especially in navigating the complex governance and resource management challenges inherent in sustainable WASH delivery.
WIL operates through three defined pillars, each intrinsically linked to the others, with WASH forming the essential foundation of environmental sustainability and commitment to eco-friendly practices, food security and agriculture as well as education and social justice.
These pillar focus on restoring degraded ecosystems, promoting biodiversity conservation, and advocating for sustainable resource management. Activities include tree planting, erosion control, waste management initiatives, and promoting renewable energy alternatives. A healthy environment is the ultimate source of clean water and underpins long-term WASH security.
Dedicated to fostering sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems, these pillar supports climate-smart agriculture, permaculture techniques, seed saving, and empowering women farmers. Access to clean water for irrigation and safe sanitation for food preparation are critical WASH components embedded within this work.
They are also focused on fostering equality, empowerment, and open opportunities through learning and advocacy. This includes girls’ education support, adult literacy, human rights awareness (particularly women’s and children’s rights), and community mobilization. WASH education – understanding the links between hygiene, sanitation, and health – is a fundamental component of this pillar, driving behavioral change and demanding accountability.
While all pillars are vital, WIL recognizes that Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene form the non-negotiable foundation upon which health, dignity, environmental sustainability, education, and economic empowerment are built.
In Lesotho’s context, where rural communities often bear the brunt of WASH inadequacies, WIL’s targeted interventions are lifesaving and transformative.
In rural Lesotho, the task of water collection disproportionately falls on women and girls, consuming hours each day and limiting opportunities for education or income generation. By bringing safe water sources closer to homes, WIL directly frees up time, reduces physical strain and enhances safety reducing risks encountered during long journeys.
A cornerstone of WIL’s work is promoting and facilitating the construction of improved, hygienic latrines, pit latrines with slabs, VIP latrines, or composting toilets where appropriate. WIL champions handwashing at critical times – after defecation, before handling food, after cleaning a child – as the single most effective hygiene practice to prevent disease.
WIL’s integration of WASH into its other pillars magnifies its impact, protecting watersheds ensures sustainable water sources, hygiene practices to ensure food safety from farm to table and access to WASH in schools – this is critical for retaining girls in education.
True to its name, WIL places women and youth at the forefront of its WASH initiatives: in leadership and decision-making skills development, ownership and sustainability and dignity and safety.
Emerging from the influential Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), its primary supporter and partner, WIL confronts Lesotho’s high unemployment rate. WIL specifically addresses the challenges faced by women graduates from rural areas, empowering them to succeed despite their backgrounds.
“Success demands overcoming obstacles,” stated Phakoe, highlighting a universal truth.
One major personal hurdle for founder her was self-doubt: “When trying to establish WIL, first, I did not believe I could do it. I did not believe I could start or secure the necessary support to keep the organization running, given the current economy.”
WIL’s survival hinges on support from diverse funders – grants and backing from individuals aligned with their mission or relevant government institutions. However, Phakoe emphasizes a critical gap: accessible funding for grassroots movements.
“There are simply not enough grants out there that grassroots movements or smaller organizations can actually access,” Phakoe explained. “Current grant demands often require significant existing financial resources. Many small organizations aren’t even formally registered. They lack the capacity to source funds effectively, and it’s clear they struggle to manage the grants they do get or qualify for the ones they need.”
This limits WIL’s growth: “We cannot access the large grants needed to scale our impact to the level we aim for. We are building our profile; with time, we will reach a stage where we can handle larger grants and significantly scale our grassroots work.”
The funding landscape has worsened, with Phakoe saying that “the withdrawal of USAID from Lesotho has also affected many other institutions providing funding, including private funders. This has shrunk the available funding pool, making it notably harder to secure grants.”
Despite funding constraints, WIL drives tangible change through core initiatives such as upcycling training and tree planting. WIL has made a significant impact through upcycling skills training, reaching 30 youth and women-led organizations in Mafeteng. Leaders are trained as entry points into the circular economy.
“These trainings have directly benefited a staggering 300 women and their families,” Phakoe reported.
“Our tree planting initiatives are the most impactful,” continued with pride.
“The ‘Green Mafeteng’ initiative, in partnership with the Rural Women’s Assembly, has collectively planted over 500 000 trees to date.”
WIL continues its vital work, empowering rural Basotho women graduates and fostering sustainable community development, demonstrating resilience even amidst significant financial challenges.
Phakoe’s experience in the Mandela Washington Fellowship is not about leaving Lesotho behind, but about bringing back enhanced tools to serve it better. Her focus on public management systems is directly relevant to navigating the complexities of WASH service delivery, advocating for pro-poor policies, strengthening community governance structures and fostering effective partnerships with local government and other stakeholders.
WIL’s future vision involves scaling its successful WASH models, deepening integration across all pillars, strengthening advocacy for national WASH priorities that center community needs, and continuing to build the capacity of Basotho women and youth as leaders in environmental and public health stewardship.
WIL understands that a healthy environment and empowered communities cannot flourish without addressing the fundamental human rights to water and sanitation. Their work transcends infrastructure – it’s about restoring dignity, safeguarding health, unlocking potential and building resilience.
By placing WASH at the core of its mission and empowering local women and youth as drivers of change, WIL is not just digging boreholes and building latrines; it is laying the essential groundwork for a healthier, more equitable, and truly sustainable future for Lesotho.
Her journey, from the mountains of Lesotho to the halls of Texas Tech and back, symbolizes the global knowledge and local commitment required to turn the dream of universal WASH access into a tangible reality for the communities WIL serves.
Their holistic approach demonstrates that water is indeed life, sanitation is dignity, and hygiene is the practice of self-determination, forming the indispensable foundation upon which all other development aspirations depend.