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Mozambique: Agriculture Advancing Through Joint U.S.-UN Efforts
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United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
11 December 2007
Posted to the web 11 December 2007
Kathryn McConnell
Washington, DC
Food security in Mozambique and the nutrition of people affected by HIV/AIDS are improving, thanks to close cooperation between U.S. and U.N. agencies, says U.S. diplomat Gaddi Vasquez.
The collaboration also is helping establish an early flood warning and response system, Vasquez, the U.S. representative to United Nations food agencies, told USINFO at the end of a four-day December visit to the country. Mozambique frequently is hit by Indian Ocean cyclones that cause severe flooding.
The coordinated responses of agencies to Mozambique's problems "is some of the best I've seen," said Vasquez, a former Peace Corps director.
U.S. agencies working in the country include Peace Corps, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The U.N. agencies involved in food relief are the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
In a December 3 Web posting to USINFO, Vasquez said the country's progress after many years of conflict is "an African success story."
In November, WFP and the Peace Corps signed an agreement to extend their reach to communities in Mozambique and elsewhere in the developing world to respond to food emergencies.
The agreement "will further strengthen Peace Corps' role in improving food security and the conditions of rural people," according to a November Peace Crops press release.
Peace Corps also has renewed a 2004 agreement with FAO to collaborate in agricultural development, Vasquez said.
Vasquez said one of the projects he visited in Mozambique was an FAO-sponsored "junior farmer field school" outside Chimoio, where, on a few hectares, students are learning how to grow and market a variety of crops. Older students are teaching younger students.
In addition to improving food security, the project has helped boost school enrollment and helps students build self-esteem, Vasquez said.
"The parents are involved, the teachers are involved and the community is involved," he said. "It was very impressive to see students learning ... and how the older generation is helping the younger generation."
Helping people learn better techniques for food production and about nutrition are "key to eradicating hunger in the long term," the ambassador said.
Vasquez also visited a WFP Food for Asset project in Zifuva that provides food to residents reconstructing a deteriorated reservoir. The completed reservoir will provide irrigation and drought management permitting people "to sustain their crops during flooding or droughts," he said.
The food-for-work program is "quite successful," with the community becoming able to grow crops to meet local demand and eventually able to sell its farm products in neighboring areas, he said.
With support from PEPFAR, Peace Corps volunteers are working in Mozambique as community health promoters, focusing on those considered most at risk -- the young, especially young women and orphans. Mozambique is one of the 15 countries initially targeted to receive funding from PEPFAR.
Vasquez visited a center for infants and children suffering from health problems, including HIV, who require intense care. Many of the children have been abandoned by parents or are orphans.
The center -- supported by PEPFAR -- provides food and medicines. "It is a life-saving operation. Infants [who] have been brought to the facility on the verge of death have been saved and are putting on weight, restoring their strength. It was a very inspirational visit," Vasquez said.
Vasquez said he is working with the Rome-based U.N. food agencies to review service delivery processes and suggest adjustments "so we can move closer to the goal of cutting in half hunger by 2015."
The United States is the major donor to the WFP, providing 44 percent of the agency's budget. The United States contributes 22 percent of FAO's budget, he said.
The full text of Vasquez's December 3-7 travel blog and related information can be found on USINFO.
For related stories, see U.S. Aid to Africa and Humanitarian Assistance and Refugees.
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More information about the U.N. food agencies is available on the Web site of the U.S. Mission to U.N. agencies in Rome.
Information about Peace Corps, PEPFAR and MCC is available on those agencies' Web sites.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
Hello and thank you for the artical. I am looking for a e-mail adress to get in contact with the (IFAD)International Funds for Agricultural Develepment. We are 3 grape export farmers from South-Africa that formed a comany called KMC-invetment Mozambique.We are in the prosess of getting land in the Massingir eria 5 km from the Ellephant river witch flow out of the Massingir dam. We applyed for a project of 5000 hect. of land.As the situation develep we are starting on a 1000 hect with water rights for the 1000 hect .We are starting with a cattle farming buseness .But... [Read Full Text]
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