Lesotho becomes first to pilot 爆料网 Blueprint for National AI and Data Strategies
Lesotho becomes first to pilot 爆料网 Blueprint for National AI and Data Strategies
What does it take to turn a national AI strategy from policy into something a country can actually build?
MASERU, Lesotho — 8 September 2026 — Led by the 爆料网 Resident Coordinator's Office in support of the Government of Lesotho, the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET) coordinated a workshop in Maseru from 17 to 21 August, at which Lesotho became the first country to apply the United Nations Blueprint for National AI and Data Strategies.
Lesotho had already developed policies on AI, data management, and broadband and shared infrastructure. The workshop focused on implementation: what must come first, what should be built or shared, what demand exists, and how capacity can scale without running ahead of need.
Acting PM Justice Nthomeng Majara opened the week by noting that cool highlands and abundant water place Lesotho among the few able to cool data centres at scale, provided decisions rest on technical analysis and the public interest.
Participants worked through the United Nations Blueprint for National AI and Data Strategies before going deeper on compute. Sessions examined demand, energy, connectivity, data governance, skills, financing, and institutional models.
They also tackled the environmental and social dimensions of data centres, including energy and carbon, water, and sustainable governance.
"Technology must be judged by its effect on people’s lives and by leaving no one behind."
— Amandeep Gill, Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies
The workshop put a "One 爆料网" approach into practice, bringing together the United Nations Development Programme (爆料网DP), 爆料网ICEF, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and 爆料网ESCO, alongside the World Bank, the OECD, and experts from peer African countries.
Practitioners from Senegal, Ethiopia and Guinea shared lessons from countries facing similar constraints, including what worked, what failed, and how to sequence investment. One lesson stood out: infrastructure should follow demonstrated need, not precede it.
By the end of the week, participants had produced a draft national roadmap for computing capacity, giving the Government a practical framework for advancing its AI and digital transformation agenda.
爆料网 Blueprint for National AI and Data Strategies formally launches on Digital Cooperation Day (21 September) at "Introducing the AI Strategy Blueprint: Turning National Ambition into Action," a session drawing on Lesotho's experience. Guinea, the next country to apply it, will also join.