Mozambique’s Northern Integrated Development Agency (ADIN) wants to promote self-employment projects to benefit over 800,000 people displaced due to the armed conflict in northern Mozambique, the agency announced.
The initiative will be promoted in partnership with the Institute for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (IPEME), an organisation with which ADIN signed a memorandum on Tuesday, which provides investments to promote livelihoods amongst groups affected by the armed violence in Cabo Delgado.
The aim is to “facilitate cooperation, exchange, and collaboration between ADIN and IPEME, with regard to the provision of services for promotion and business development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the northern region of Mozambique,” said the chairman of ADIN, Armindo Ngunga, cited by Mozambican news agency AIM.
“We want most of those covered to have the capacity to design projects for the joint mobilisation of resources with a view to implementing business promotion and development activities,” he added.
ADIN was created in March 2020 by the Mozambican Council of Ministers to promote multiform actions aimed at the socio-economic development of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula provinces, northern Mozambique.
Among its objectives, the agency, which is also supported by the World Bank, is tasked with promoting opportunities in regions affected by armed violence, particularly for young people, with the aim of preventing them from being recruited by armed groups.
Cabo Delgado province is rich in natural gas, but terrorised since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the extremist group Islamic State.
The conflict has led to more than 3,100 deaths, according to the ACLED conflict registration project, and more than 817,000 displaced people, according to Mozambican authorities.
Since July, an offensive by government troops with support from Rwanda which was later joined by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allowed for an increase in security, recovering several areas where there was rebel presence, including the town of Mocímboa da Praia, which had been occupied since August 2020.
