Small-Scale Agribusiness as Vehicle for Empowerment and Resilience: Lessons from World Vision International, Lesotho

Abstract

The study sought to understand socio-economic empowerment and resilience through small-scale agribusinesses. Data was collected from 273 beneficiaries of small-scale agro-businesses funded by World Vision International (WVI). Data was collected using a 7-point Likert-based data collection tool. The data was analyzed using SmartPLS 4 and Stata. The analysis suggested that community resilience mediates the relationship between socio-economic empowerment and resilience (β = 0.095, p < 0.050) and that enhancing community resilience results in improved overall resilience (β = 0.796, p < 0.001). It was also determined that socio-economic initiatives based on SSAB significantly increased overall resilience (β = 0.158, p < 0.001). It can be argued that agro-based initiatives can be instrumental in empowering individuals, and this, in turn, results in improved resilience. Further research could be conducted to assess the sustained impact of agricultural interventions and economic empowerment initiatives in Lesotho. One way to do this is through a longitudinal study that evaluates the effectiveness of programs like World Vision International's Livelihoods and Resilience Programme (LRP) on participants' socio-economic outcomes over time.

Keywords

• agribusiness
• resilience
• socio-economic empowerment