Norway will provide a total of 94 million dollars to improve food security in six African countries, including Mozambique. The money will be used to help produce rice adapted to the climate, preserve local seeds and increase the productivity of small farmers.
“World hunger is on the rise for the fifth year running. Almost 300 million people don’t know when and how they will eat their next meal. Improving food security is a key priority for the Norwegian Executive’s development policy,” said a report published by regjeringen.no.
According to the Norwegian government’s official website, the funding will be managed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and will be channelled over a period of five years to initiatives carried out by different organisations working in Niger, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
“With this financial support for civil society, Norway wants to reach small farmers. We want to increase production and make them more resilient to climate change, economic hardship and conflict. We are supporting improvements in local value chains to take food from the fields to the cities and, in this way, develop African countries’ own efforts to increase food security,” said Anne Beathe Kristiansen Tvinnereim, Norway’s Minister for Development Cooperation.
She recalled that the United Nations recently revealed that gender inequality in agriculture has a considerable impact on global food and nutrition security, and that women food producers face more obstacles and are more severely affected by the food crisis than men.
According to her, eliminating gender disparities in food systems could reduce the number of food insecure people by 45 million and increase countries’ incomes.
“Women work in all parts of the food supply, from production to processing and sales. And they should have better opportunities. Supporting women who work with food will provide more food security and more economic development for all,” emphasised Tvinnereim.
