22 October, 2013 - During a ceremony that took place in Maputo on 7 August, the Government of Mozambique launched the EU funded programme called “Accelerate progress towards MDG 1 c in Mozambique”. The initiative, which from the UN side will count on the support of FAO, IFAD and WFP for its implementation, aims to strengthen activities to accelerate achievement of MDG 1(target c.) to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

The programme, with a budget of US$ 67 million, is being financed by the EU over a period of five years.

The programme will support the Government of Mozambique, through strategic partnerships and complemented direct interventions, to improve the livelihoods, food security and nutritional status of people in the seven provinces concerned Manica, Sofala, Tete, Zambézia, Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado. It will address the three dimensions of food security (access, availability and utilization) in the country. Enhanced agricultural and fisheries production, increased access to food and improved nutrition are the three pillars of the programme.

“We believe that the goals of MDG1 can be achieved through coordinated interventions by the Government, donors, civil society and other stakeholders, with a view to increasing agricultural production, access to markets and improved nutrition. The three Rome-based agencies have a successful long-time joint collaboration agreement and the implementation of this program is further the realization of the agreement on the ground.” said Mr. Castro Camarada, FAOR in Mozambique, speaking on behalf of the three Rome-based agencies.

“Nutrition and food security topics have been getting more attention in Mozambique, and I´d like to remind all of us here that the challenges to our country are enormous; we need to reduce the levels of food insecurity to our population from 35% to 18% and chronic malnutrition to children under 5 from 43% to 30%, all by 2015”, stated Daniel Clemente, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture in Mozambique.

Speaking on behalf of the EU Enrico Strampelli, noted that from the EU´s perspective “We trust that the programme will generate concrete results and positive impacts to populations livelihoods improvement for more than 200 thousand families, in the 7 provinces and 45 districts where it will be implemented”.

Food security and nutrition are a central part of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), which is implemented under the scope of One UN and the Delivering as One. In addition, at corporate level the three RBA’s are committed to building a strategic and programmatic cooperation to mobilize support for food security and nutrition activities benefiting the most vulnerable populations and countries.

At field level,this is being implemented by the three Rome-based agencies, combining WFP procurement requirements for food commodities and its experience in nutrition, with the technical capacity of FAO in production and storage, and IFAD´s experience in business management and access to credit.