In the next few days, the government will present an entity that will centrally manage the application of support and donations from funds intended to finance the activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country, as a way of improving the applicability and evaluation of benefits.
According to the newspaper Noticias, the measure, which was announced on Friday (14) by government spokesman Inocêncio Impissa, also aims to simplify the long road that funds have to travel before they reach the beneficiaries of development projects and programmes.
This initiative comes in reaction to a concern recently expressed by the Mozambican President, Daniel Chapo, at a meeting in Pemba, Cabo Delgado, in the north of the country, with representatives of NGOs operating in Mozambique.
Impissa emphasised that the head of state has expressed concern about the application of funds equivalent to two billion dollars for humanitarian support in Cabo Delgado and the reconstruction component, the results of which, in his opinion, are precarious.
‘The Mozambican President has been thinking about an organisation at government level, which has already been found and which we will announce shortly. This unit will coordinate all aid to NGO activities. We will also have to eliminate the stages that exist until the money reaches the recipient. And this mechanism can help us channel more to the final beneficiary and provide convenient assistance to Mozambicans,’ he explained.
He said that the meeting ‘was productive because the NGOs understood that it is necessary to carry out joint actions and improve coordination mechanisms to optimise the support that is being announced for Cabo Delgado province and beyond’.
Impissa, who is also Minister of State Administration and Civil Service, explained that humanitarian agencies have very high administrative costs in the various phases of programming resources until they reach the beneficiaries: ‘They (NGOs) need to pay for offices, vehicles and salaries, and little money ends up reaching the province, the districts or the community-based organisations.’
