Elaboration of 4 Integrated Catchment Management and Development Plans for the Upper Senqu, Lower Senqu, Central Mohokare and Lower Mohokare Catchment Management Areas in Lesotho

The Government of Lesotho, with support from the EU and the BMZ, has embarked on an ambitious "National Programme for ICM (ReNoka)" ("re noka" in Sesotho means "we are a river"). Its aim is to rehabilitate degraded watersheds across the country and to put in place prevention measures that will halt the further degradation of Lesotho"s catchment areas. The sustainable management of Lesotho"s catchments are of critical importance for water, land, energy and food security not only in Lesotho itself but in the entire Orange-Senqu Basin and Gauteng Province, one of Southern Africa"s economic centres. The GIZ has been commissioned by the EU and the BMZ as part of its transboundary water management (TWM) programme for Southern African Development Community (SADC) to implement a technical cooperation project (Action) to support ICM / ReNoka in Lesotho. The overall objective of the Action is that "ICM facilitates socio-economic development and adaptation to climate change in Lesotho", while the specific objective is "ICM is institutionalised and under full implementation in Lesotho, based on gender equality and climate adaptation principles". To achieve this objective, the Action work concurrently on five interlinked outputs: - Output 1: Effective and efficient, gender sensitive and climate-resilient policy framework for ICM is developed and applied. - Output 2: Effective and efficient institutions for ICM are established, with equitable representation of women and youth. - Output 3: Capacity, skills and knowledge of public, private sector and civil society for sustainable ICM is facilitated. - Output 4: ICM measures are implemented. - Output 5: Capacity strengthened for coordination, monitoring, supervision and general programme management. Lesotho is sub-divided into six Catchment Management Areas of (CMAs) to facilitate the planning and management of its three river basins (Senqu river basin, Mohokare river basin and Makhaleng river basin). The six CMAs are Upper Senqu, Lower Senqu, Upper Mohokare, Central Mohokare, Lower Mohokare and Makhaleng. Lesotho"s Long-term Water and Sanitation Strategy (2014) calls for the preparation of Integrated Catchment Management and Development Plans (ICMDPs) in consultation with stakeholders and guidelines for their elaboration as key components to support Integrated Catchment Management in Lesotho. So far two of the six ICMDPs have been elaborated, these are two ICMDPs for Upper Mohokare and Makhaleng CMAs. The objective of this assignment is therefore to elaborate four ICMDPs for the following CMAs: Upper Senqu, Lower Senqu, Central Mohokare and Lower Mohokare.