The executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) defended this Monday, 17 June, the continuity of the agency’s support for the displaced in Cabo Delgado, given the results achieved, asking that this “crisis” in Mozambique not be forgotten.
“The world is facing other crises. UNOPS is present in many contexts of conflict and violence, but we cannot allow the situation in Cabo Delgado to be forgotten in the international context,” said Jorge Moreira da Silva, after a meeting in Maputo with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Verónica Macamo.
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General began a four-day visit to Mozambique today to learn about the projects being implemented by UNOPS in Cabo Delgado, where he will be travelling on Tuesday (18).
Since 2022, the organisation has led the implementation of support for more than a million displaced people from all the districts of Cabo Delgado (a province affected for almost seven years by terrorist attacks), to the value of 12.6 billion meticais (200 million dollars) financed by the World Bank and destined for development and humanitarian projects in the region.
“The construction of 20 schools, eight health centres, 40,000 people who have had access to psychological support, more than 7,000 young people who have had access to professional training, the construction of eight markets, four business incubators, as well as all the social support for the internally displaced… It was a project that had beautiful results, but my question is: is it finished? it’s not,” said Jorge Moreira da Silva.
The head of national diplomacy, Verónica Macamo, praised the “strength” of UNOPS’ work in Mozambique and hoped that cooperation would be strengthened.
For the former Portuguese minister who heads UNOPS, the continuity of this support project in Cabo Delgado beyond 2025 is on the table: “there is obviously a need to go further and I think that if the results have been so good, I sincerely hope that it will be possible to progress. I can’t announce anything at the moment, but my expectation is that the World Bank may be interested in continuing this partnership, as I think there will be interest on all sides for this to happen.”
He recognised that this four-day mission, which includes meetings with various members of the government and visits to the field, is taking place in a very specific context. “At a time when Mozambique is clearly one of the countries most threatened by the consequences of climate change, it has been hit by successive climatic disasters which demonstrate that, although it is not responsible for very significant greenhouse gas emissions, it suffers disproportionate effects of the changes and, therefore, it is essential that the international community mobilises to support the country in climate resilience, adaptation to climate change and decarbonisation and energy transition,” he pointed out.
Still on the situation in Cabo Delgado, which continues to see attacks by insurgent groups, albeit on a smaller scale in recent weeks, Jorge Moreira da Silva admits that “the threat is not over”.
“What happened in May, with the latest attack [on the town of Macomia], shows that it is important to continue to make every effort to guarantee security in that part of the country, but it is not enough to guarantee security. We need social support and economic support. We need to create conditions of well-being,” he said.
“UNOPS is not a security agency or an agency that deals with security, but it is an agency that deals with humanitarian and development projects and that is why I hope that this project can continue in the coming years,” he concluded.
