Portugal’s Secretary of State for Cooperation, Francisco André, on Tuesday, December 6, highlighted the model of aid to Mozambique in the response to cyclones Idai and Kenneth in 2019, considering it a “good example” of how the Portuguese Cooperation Strategy will be until 2030.
The Portuguese ruler, who made an assessment of how the 2.24 million euros gathered in the Financing Mechanism to Support the Recovery and Reconstruction of Mozambique after the two cyclones were used, highlighted the “development partnerships created” between consortiums of non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs), but also the involvement of private funding, responsible for 37.5% of the total amount (841 thousand euros).
“It was an unprecedented action, which is an example of what Portuguese cooperation should be: an action with measurable data, which produced its effects, involving everyone who is part of this great universe,” underlined the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Portugal (SENEC), at the event “Together in Mozambique: The Role of Portuguese NGDOs in Post-Cyclone Reconstruction”, held at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
The articulation between “companies, which funded with the budgets [for social responsibility] available, the NGDOs, which implemented the projects, and the Portuguese State, which, in addition to funding [with 1.4 million euros], helped design this framework,” is, according to Francisco André, “a good example and incentive for the implementation of the new Portuguese Cooperation Strategy 2030, increasingly in partnership and increasingly giving civil society the opportunity to implement development projects.
The mechanism funded five projects by consortia of Portuguese NGDOs with action in Mozambique, which supported the recovery and reconstruction of the Mozambican regions most affected by the two disasters, in conjunction with the Mozambican authorities, partners and local communities, and benefited a total of 676,000 people, according to Camões, Institute of Cooperation and Language, which coordinated the implementation.
“Cyclone Idai hit central Mozambique in March 2019, causing more than 600 deaths and affecting more than 1.5 million people, with Sofala province severely damaged”.
Francisco André also highlighted as “very important” the “ability to account” for where the resources were used, which, in this case, resulted “in added value, because they happened in a country that suffers greatly from climate change and is not responsible for it.
Mozambique, the Portuguese Secretary of State also emphasized, is “one of the main partners of Portuguese cooperation”, and is even its “largest individual beneficiary”, as shown in the strategic cooperation program signed at the end of 2021, which included the largest investment ever in a similar program by Portugal, around 170 million euros over five years – a figure that was boosted by another 15 million euros at the bilateral Portugal-Mozambique summit last September in Maputo.
“This articulation between the Portuguese and Mozambican authorities has been so fruitful (…) that there were conditions to make this financial increase, in the first year of implementation,” said the minister, speaking at the end of the event.
“We want to continue working with Mozambique in this cooperation for development aid and also in this articulation to combat the terrorist threat in the North of the country,” said the Portuguese Secretary of State.
Francisco André recalled that Portuguese aid to Mozambique goes beyond the scope of cooperation, development and occasional commitment to emergency and recovery efforts resulting from natural disasters, pointing to Lisbon’s support “to respond to the terrorist threat in Cabo Delgado.
“In addition to being present in the security response to the terrorist threat, through our participation in the European Union training mission and our bilateral cooperation in the area of defense, in development matters we have been implementing a very significant delegated cooperation project: the ‘More Employment’ project, which contributes to qualifying young people of that province [Cabo Delgado] in the natural gas sector,” he said.
On the other hand, he added, “similarly” to the response actions to the impacts caused by the passage through Mozambique in March and April 2019 of cyclones Idai and Kenneth, “with regard to Cabo Delgado, in its more humanitarian aspect of emergency support to populations displaced because of the conflict,” an “emergency fund was also set up at the end of last year worth 1.2 million euros, also in articulation between various state entities and the private sector.”
Cyclone Idai hit central Mozambique in March 2019, causing more than 600 deaths and affecting more than 1.5 million people, with Sofala province severely damaged.
About 90% of the city of Beira, the provincial capital of Sofala, was destroyed by the cyclone.
A few months later, in April of the same year, Mozambique was again affected by a cyclone (the Kenneth), which killed 45 people in the north of the country.
The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in memory in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of the two cyclones.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most affected by climate change in the world. The five projects supported by the Financing Mechanism to Support Recovery and Reconstruction in Mozambique focused on aid to rural communities, education and health, and involved about two dozen Portuguese NGDOs and local Mozambican partners