Projects in communities affected by the war in the centre of the country will receive most of the 62 million euros of support from the European Union (EU) to the peace process in the country, the EU ambassador in Maputo told Lusa.
“We have these major objectives: demilitarisation, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) in the short term and in the longer term support to the affected communities, which includes education, reconciliation, labour activities and decentralisation. These activities to support communities are the most important component,” said Antonio Gaspar in an interview with Lusa.
“There are communities affected by the crisis and the conflict during all these years. The combatants of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) need support, but the communities also need it,” he stressed.
This is the scope of the Delpaz initiative – Local Development for Peace Consolidation for which 25 million euros are allocated through contracts signed with Italian and Austrian cooperation as well as United Nations agencies.
These projects will “create conditions” for pacification through income-generating activities, improved governance at district level, job creation and reconciliation.
“It is a long-term initiative,” the diplomat stressed.
“There was a 40-year conflict, we need a few more” for projects to move forward and peace to be consolidated, he noted.
Another 15 million euros are contracted to implement projects to support decentralisation and strengthen the management of local authorities, in a strand seen as a way of “deepening democracy”, he said.
Contracts should be signed in the coming weeks (to be implemented this year) with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and German cooperation (GIZ, the German acronym).
Another €10 million is part of the European instrument for peace and stability and most of it has been invested in support after cyclones Idai and Kenneth – which hit the provinces with armed conflicts, Cabo Delgado, Sofala and Manica, in 2019.
All this goes hand in hand with the DDR process that is progressing on the ground, with about half of the 5 520 Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) combatants – beneficiaries of support and subsidies channelled through a muti donor fund – already demobilised.
“This fund currently has about 20 million euros of resources, four million supported by the EU, of which “two million have already been disbursed and another two are on the way, to be disbursed in the coming weeks,” he said.
Within the next European contributions to the peace process in Mozambique it is foreseen the delivery of three million to DelPaz, 3.5 million for national reconciliation activities (the partners will be civil society organisations, through a tender process) and 1.5 million for audits, evaluation and contingencies.
Antonio Gaspar believes that the DDR process in Mozambique will be concluded by the end of 2022, considering it “a success story” and being optimistic about the evolution of the peace process.
