"Farmers already have improved access to food", X. Tivane told the group

A delegation of representatives of the Scandinavian countries to the UN agencies in Mozambique on Friday (28/11) concluded its five-day visit to the country. The group, constituted by representatives of the five Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) and by their respective cooperation agencies and permanent missions at the United Nations, paid a field visit to the country to evaluate the cooperation with the UN agencies in Mozambique.

"This is a very important mission for us, United Nations, since it reinforces the partnership between UN Mozambique and the Scandinavian countries", the UN Mozambique Resident Coordinator, Jennifer Topping, said.

The visit program, which included visits in Maputo and Gaza province, focused on gender and women’s empowerment issues, sexual and reproductive health, food security, social security, disaster risk reduction and post-disaster action as well as human rights.

In meetings with the Mozambican authorities in the country’s capital, Maputo – among others with the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Henrique Banze, and with officers from the ministries of Women and Social Action, Youth and Sports and Justice – the mission intended to check UN’s support to the development of the social security system in Mozambique as well as discuss the activities and the future of the "Geração Biz" program, a joint initiative of the Mozambican Government and the UN in the sexual and reproductive health sector, and get an overview of how the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in the area of human rights is progressing in the country.

During a visit to Polana Caniço Hospital, in Maputo, the group also had the opportunity to monitor HIV and aids prevention and treatment actions (with a focus on prevention of mother-to-child transmission).

"It is a privilege to learn from the farmers and share their knowledge"

In Gaza province the objective was to verify the situation of the cooperation between the UN agencies and the Scandinavian countries especially in the area of food security and disaster risk reduction. In this regard, the delegation visited Guija, a semi-arid district in Gaza, that regularly faces climatic challenges related to extreme events. "Although the rainy season is relatively short, it is very strong" the District Administrator, Azarias Sonto, said in a meeting with the group. "If we are food secure", he added, "it is because women take responsibility for the field work and thus for feeding their families".

Food and nutrition security has been a priority both of the Mozambican Government and the UN agencies, especially among those that work in this area: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

In Gaza, FAO together with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), WFP, UN Women, the Belgian Technical Cooperation, and Belgian NGOs (FOS, DISOP) is implementing a five-year food and nutrition security program that aims at improving food and nutrition security of vulnerable families in six districts, amongst them Guija, by assisting several Farmer Field Schools (FFSs). One of those, the "Reformed School", which FAO in coordination with the District Services of Economic Activities (SDAE) provides with technical assistance, was the starting point of the delegation’s visit in the province.

Since August the group of farmers has been developing on 1,5 hectares cultures of maize, vegetables and beans, testing, in interspersed areas, production methods like composting, irrigation, fertilizer use and plague control. For the school’s President, Xavier Tivane, the FFS method "brings many benefits for local producers, since it is them who test and monitor their cultures through different methods". Answering a question by the Head of the delegation, Johanna Karanko, from Finland, on the productivity and revenue increase and therefore on the "efficacy of the FFS method", Tivane said that "farmers can already see positive results in terms of access to food although it is a recently founded school".

UN Mozambique Resident Coordinator, Jeniffer Topping, talking to the women farmers of the school said it was "a privilege for the UN to learn with the local farmers, but also to share this knowledge with the Scandinavian partners".

Program reflected partners’ strategy

Apart from the "Reformed FFS", the delegation visited Chokwe community radio station, which focuses its work on disaster risk prevention, and a camp for displaced persons who after the floods in 2013 lost their homes in the city of Chokwe. In the provincial capital, Xai-Xai, the group also visited a local health center to understand the process of child registry and deworming treatments as well as the national family planning services. At the end of the visit, in the district of Manhiça, the delegation visited an office for the support of victims of violence, abuse, negligence and exploration.

The mission program of the Scandinavian partners reflected their position and strategy towards the UN system in Mozambique, one of their priority countries in terms of cooperation.