Outcomes of Mozambique country programme consultations

16 July, 2008

The GM’s proposed country programme to support the efforts of the Government of Mozambique to address land degradation and poverty over the next 2-3 years was the subject of discussions of the GM mission to Mozambique from 17 to 23 May 2008.

The overall objective of the country programme is to develop an integrated financing strategy (IFS) to guide resource mobilization for UNCCD implementation. The programme will explore financing opportunities from national, bilateral, multilateral and innovative sources.

The consultations aimed to ensure that the programme will be anchored in a strong, clearly-defined country framework based on a participatory process with development partners.

Outcomes

Following discussions with the Deputy Minister for the Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA), the GM and Government agreed on the cooperation framework and the following key programme components;

mainstreaming the UNCCD/SLM into national planning and budgetary frameworks;
building strategic partnerships to upscale UNCCD investments, including through the TerrAfrica initiative;
promoting knowledge sharing and capacity building through the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries Initiative (CPLP); and
exploring innovative sources of financing for implementation, including through the synergistic implementation of UNCCD and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The mission confirmed that a range of development partners’ are interested in working in collaboration with the GM. These include the Embassies of Finland and Spain, the University of Eduardo Mondlane; the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the civil society organization, Cruzeiro do Sul, and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). Potential areas of co-operation include: policy analysis, advocacy to support resource mobilization, and partnerships to upscale investments in sustainable land management and for poverty reduction.

The GM also liaised with the Donor/Government Working Group on Environment to discuss how the GM can align its work with existing initiatives without duplicating efforts. In this context, the GM has already provided inputs for the Group’s stocktaking exercise on climate change adaptation/mitigation activities in Mozambique.

In addition, the GM followed up on the outcomes of the recent research on financing for SLM, undertaken by Oxford Policy Management (OPM), on behalf of GM and its TerrAfrica partners. The outcomes will feed into the GM’s broad support to Mozambique.

Next Steps

The GM country programme will now be finalized based on feedback received from Government and the development partners. A national workshop to present, discuss and endorse the country programme is being organized for September 2008. This will also be an opportunity for Government and development partners to learn more about the GM’s work in general, and the programme implementation strategy.

For more information:

Ms Elsie Attafuah, Programme Officer, East and Southern Africa
Tel. +39 06 5459 2577
e.attafuah (at) global-mechanism.org

Related Links

Government of Mozambique (in Portuguese)

The GM's East and Southern Africa Programme

The CPLP website (in Portuguese)

The GM's Economics and Financing Instruments Strategic Programme

Cruzeiro do Sula's website

FAO's website

DFID's website

SADC's website

TerrAfrica's website

Oxford Policy Management's website