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Good practice Imported

Sebabatso AI Skills Programme — Lesotho Trains Its First Cohort of Youth Entrepreneurs in AI-Powered Marketing

Lesotho · Maseru · See the Lesotho profile · See the Maseru profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 70% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Lesotho's Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development and the U.S. Embassy launched an AI Skills Development Programme under the Sebabatso youth-empowerment initiative, training a first cohort of 60 entrepreneurship-programme alumni in AI-powered digital marketing at America

60 Sebabatso alumni
First AI-skills cohort size
6 months
Training cycle length
Sebabatso AI Skills Programme — Lesotho Trains Its First Cohort of Youth Entrepreneurs in AI-Powered Marketing

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development (Lesotho) / U.S. Embassy Lesotho / American Corner Maseru
Period
2025–2026
Keywords
youth entrepreneurship, AI literacy, digital marketing

Context

Sebabatso ("to nurture", in Sesotho) is Lesotho Prime Minister Sam Matekane's flagship youth-empowerment initiative, launched in October 2023 with UNDP Lesotho and the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development. In 2025 the Ministry, the U.S. Embassy in Lesotho and American Corner Maseru launched a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Skills Development Programme under Sebabatso, equipping past beneficiaries with AI-assisted marketing, content creation and access to international digital markets.

Results

The first cohort comprises 60 Sebabatso alumni already running businesses, undergoing a structured six-month training cycle that opened with a three-day e-commerce and AI-powered marketing workshop at American Corner Maseru, covering AI tools for digital storefronts, targeted advertising and customer analytics.

Conclusions

Public reporting to date covers training design, partners and cohort size rather than AI-specific business outcomes; the wider Sebabatso initiative reports its supported companies have collectively generated 383 jobs, but that figure spans all Sebabatso tracks, not the AI-skills cohort specifically.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development (Lesotho), UNDP Lesotho, U.S. Embassy in Lesotho, American Corner Maseru

Conditions for success

  • cohort drawn from Sebabatso alumni already running businesses
  • structured six-month training cycle opening with an in-person AI-marketing workshop

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes ESF+ — European Social Fund Plus

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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