FAO in Mozambique and Swaziland 

The FAO Country Programme in Mozambique and Swaziland responds to agendas that are developed at global, regional and national levels:

Global

As a UN agency, FAO has a mandate to support the integration of globally formulated and approved principles and commitments into member state policies and programmes, resulting from Summits and international conferences on food security and sustainable rural development. These range from environmental and sustainable development principles, declarations on the rights of women, the global fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, World Food Summit declarations and most recently the Millennium Development Goals.

The Government of Mozambique, as a member state of both the UN and FAO, is also committed to integrating these goals and principles into national policies and programmes. Objectives set by the Government of Mozambique are articulated in several strategic documents that define the broad sweep of socio-economic policy:

•  Agenda 2025

•  The 5-year Socio-Economic Plan of the Government

•  Poverty Reduction and Action Plan (PARPA)

Regional

The region of Africa has witnessed various attempts to address continent-wide problems related to governance, economic development, food security and, most recently, HIV/AIDS. In parallel with the creation of the African Union, the NEPAD initiative is emerging as an effective mechanism to build a new commitment across the Continent and amongst all other partners to address the underlying issues which are seen as the principle obstacles of sustainable development and prosperity for all Africans.

FAO is strongly committed to promoting and supporting the various NEPAD initiatives that address the food security crisis of the Continent, and to finding the necessary partnerships to address these crucial issues. FAO played a crucial role in the preparation of the Comprehensive Agriculture Sector Policies (CASP) for all countries in the region. The recurrent food security problems of the Southern African sub-region, aggravated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and poor governance, has also resulted in a new alliance of the United Nations to address the issues of 'Triple Threat'. FAO is an active member of this alliance and is spearheading new initiatives related to food insecurity and HIV/AIDS.

National

Two complementary lines of FAO activity are identified at the national level:

• Policy formulation and approval

• Programme development and implementation, as two complementary challenges

The United Nations System in Mozambique is committed to a common approach (UNDAF) based within the framework of the PARPA and in line with global commitments to the MDGs. In addition UN Agencies participate actively in the key sector programmes/Sector Wide Approaches (SWAPs) such as Agriculture/PROAGRI, HIV/AIDS-PEN2, Education, and Health/PROSAUDE. There is a strong feeling that even with the move towards general budget support and poverty reduction strategies, the UN engagement in sector wide approaches is vital. The UN Country Team played an active role in the revision process of the PARPA (PRSP), concentrating its efforts on key themes like poverty reduction, food security, HIV/AIDS, governance, basic social services and economic development and promoting the integration of the Millennium Development Goals within this macro strategic plan.

In this context, the FAO Country Programme is a poverty reduction and food security oriented package of integrated projects and programme-based activities that can be set within two broad groups:

•  Supporting the mainstreaming of global goals and principles into national policies and programmes (PARPA, ESAN, PROAGRI etc), and other normative activities that feed into the continuing development of these global goals and principles

•  Responding to the specific needs of the member state country (national programmes and activities to implement them) with a focus on capacity building and introducing, testing and piloting new approaches.