Mozambique
The Swiss Cooperation Programme for Mozambique 2022-2025 targets improving access to high-quality basic services and enhancing economic development, employment and incomes. It supports local projects mainly in the three northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula. At the national level, Switzerland is actively involved in policy dialogue on poverty alleviation.
Context Mozambique
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. In 2020, almost 64% of the population lived below the poverty line. The national budget is still largely dependent on foreign aid. Over 80% of the population subsists on smallholder farming and is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. The fallout of the debt crisis in 2016, the recurrence of devastating cyclones, the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts in the northern part of the country pose further challenges to the country’s development.
Switzerland is pursuing an integrated approach, which combines instruments of development cooperation, humanitarian aid and peace policy. At the national level, Switzerland promotes policy dialogue and supports the government in implementing institutional reforms, while at the provincial and local levels it works with local communities.
High-quality public services for all
Switzerland promotes universal access to need-based public services. It supports local authorities in enhancing the efficiency of planning and budgeting processes and encourages a dialogue between civil society and government authorities. For instance, it advocates for profits from the exploitation of natural resources to be used for the benefit of communities. Switzerland is also helping to strengthen the office of the attorney general in combating corruption and financial crimes. As a result, by 2020, stolen assets amounting to USD 95 million were recovered and returned. Improvements in the drinking water supply in the Niassa region provided access to clean drinking water for more than 280,000 people, and there was a substantial increase in the number of healthy births in hospitals.
Development of the economy, employment and incomes
To absorb the country’s growing young workforce, Switzerland is focusing on vocational skills training adapted to market needs. It also is also working with the private sector to support small enterprises by strengthening value chains and promoting the microfinance sector. In northern Mozambique, the SDC supported a microfinance bank, Futuro, set up in 2017. Within a period of six years, it had disbursed more than 45,000 loans to 20,350 small and medium-sized enterprises (67% of them owned by women), which would otherwise not have had access to long-term investments. Over 100,000 people and their families have thus benefited due to improved incomes and access to education and healthcare services. The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) complements the SDC’s activities with technical advice on economic stimulation.
Humanitarian aid for victims of natural disasters and internally displaced persons
Following the devastation wreaked by the tropical cyclones Idai and Kenneth in 2019, the SDC implemented a humanitarian programme in the northern part of the country and provided emergency relief and reconstruction assistance to the impacted communities and local authorities. The SDC is presently helping to establish essential services, especially water, basic sanitation and hygiene (WASH) for local communities and people displaced by the conflicts in the Cabo Delgado province. The objectives of these projects are both short term (emergency relief) and medium term by linking them with existing development cooperation projects (nexus approach).
Approach and main partners
The Swiss Cooperation Programme 2022-2025 is implemented by the SDC in close coordination with SECO and the Peace and Human Rights Division (PHRD) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Switzerland promotes gender equality by mainstreaming this aspect in all its projects and by entering into partnerships with organisations that are active and competent in this area. The principles of good governance are similarly integrated in all its activities, for example through policy dialogue.
Switzerland’s main partners in Mozambique are:
- Swiss and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs);
- Ministries as well as provincial and regional authorities;
- NGOs and civil society organisations in Mozambique;
- Multilateral partners.
Stories
AIDS: «The progress achieved in the past 20 years is impressive»
SDC Assistant Director General Nicolas Randin visited Mozambique and Zimbabwe – both priority countries for Switzerland's international cooperation work.
Contact
Eichenweg 5
3003 Bern