Mozambique will defend the need to reform international financial institutions and the fight against climate change at the Summit of the Future, which kicks off on Sunday in New York as part of the United Nations General Assembly, according to the government.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation says that in New York ‘the reflection is on what to do to face the current challenges of the future’.
‘The reflection is on what to do to face the current challenges of the future. And we have concrete challenges in our country that are linked to climate change. We’ve always had cyclical floods and cyclones. How can we face these challenges?’ said the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Manuel Gonçalves, this Saturday in New York.
Gonçalves was speaking to journalists after the arrival in New York of Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, who will be speaking at the Future Summit on Sunday, one of around 50 heads of state and government attending the two-day event.
Manuel Gonçalves said that another of the challenges that Mozambique intends to take to the summit is the lack of funding to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals at a global level, whose target has been set by the United Nations Organisation at 2030.
‘One of the great challenges that the world has seen is the lack of funding for these goals, these targets that have been set. And then the reflection will be, and we also defend this, the need to reform the countries’ financing system.
So we have to reform the financial institutions to favour developing countries,’ he added. The summit precedes the start of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

This Saturday, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi begins a four-day visit to New York, United States of America, where he will take part in the Summit of the Future, which will take place on 22 and 23 September under the slogan ‘Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow’ and under the auspices of the United Nations General Assembly, and in an event dedicated to the defence of the Miombo Forest on Monday.
On the first day of the summit, the head of state will deliver two speeches, the first under the slogan ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for International Peace and Security’ and the second in the summit plenary session, to ‘share Mozambique’s vision for building a better country and a fairer world’, as well as the country’s ‘commitment to multilateralism’.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.
The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe on record in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the biggest ever to hit the country.
In the first quarter of 2023, heavy rains and Cyclone Freddy caused 306 deaths, affected more than 1.3 million people, destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms, according to official government figures.
The Mozambican government estimates that economic growth next year will be 0.7 percentage points below the country’s capacity due to climatic events, namely the ‘La Niña’ phenomenon.
According to a report by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the fiscal risks for next year, the climate projections from October to March have thus conditioned the forecast for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2025, which is 4.7 per cent, down from the 5.5 per cent expected for 2024.
‘It is estimated that real growth could be 0.7 percentage points below the economy’s potential capacity,’ reads the document.
It adds that in 2023, the effects of Cyclone Freddy and Storm Filipo took 2.3 percentage points off Mozambique’s GDP growth, which followed four points in 2022 and 4.7 points in 2021, for the same reasons.
‘The graphs show that during the next rainy and cyclonic season the country will be under the influence of ‘La Ninã’.
This phenomenon favours the occurrence of above-normal rainfall in the central and southern regions, particularly in the periods from October 2024 to March 2025, while forecasts of sea surface temperature anomalies point to a transition from ‘El’ Niño to ‘La Niña’,’ he concludes.
Observador