13 July 2007
Washington, D.C. — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza arrived in Washington on Thursday for a two day working visit, during which he will witness the signing of the agreement under which Mozambique is to receive 506.9 million US dollars, over five years, from the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation {MCC}.
Mozambique has been in negotiations with the MCC since 2004, and the final shape of the agreement {known as a "compact"} consists of a series of interventions to reduce poverty in four provinces north of the Zambezi river - Zambezia, Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado.
The largest component of the compact, 203.6 million dollars, is earmarked for improving water supply and sanitation, and thus reducing the incidence of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.
A transport component, costed at 176.3 million dollars, is intended to improve access to services and markets, and reduce the high transport costs currently faced by private businesses. Most of this component is to be spent on rehabilitating 491 kilometres of the country's main north-south highway.
17.4 million dollars is to be spent on boosting agricultural incomes, notably by halting the spread of lethal yellowing diseases, which is devastating the huge plantations of coconut palms in Zambezia.
Infected palm trees will be destroyed and replaced. Farmers will be assisted in adopting new crops and alternative sources of income while waiting for the new palm trees to reach productive age.
39.1 million dollars will be spent on land tenure matters - modernising land information services, solving problems in implementing Mozambican land legislation, and improving regulations so as to ensure a speedy dispute resolution procedure.
40 million dollars is earmarked for technical assistance and capacity building for Mozambican institutions, while the compact also includes 70.5 million dollars for programme management costs, monitoring and evaluation.
Shortly after his arrival in Washington, Guebuza took part in two seminars - one with American academics who study African questions, and the second with businessmen who might be interested in investing in Mozambique.
During the second seminar, officials of the MCC said that the decision to support the four northern provinces was taken because these were the least developed of Mozambique's 11 provinces. If the money is used as planned, it should result in a significant improvement of infrastructures in that part of the country, which would in turn help reduce the levels of poverty.
The four provinces have a total population of around 10 million. The projections made of the effects of the MCC interventions are that they could directly lift 270,000 of them out of poverty, while a further 5.7 million would improve their living standards and incomes.
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