The Austrian government has allocated three million euros for the second phase of a nutrition project in the Chemba region, Sofala province, central Mozambique, an official source said.
“We want the benefits of this project to contribute to making communities more resilient when it comes to mitigating the effects of climate change, in particular the long-term drought in the Chemba region,” said the head of Austrian development cooperation, Lisa Leitenbauer, during the project’s launch ceremony. the second phase of the Gender and Nutrition Transformation Project, held in Sofala.
The project was created in 2019, and in the first stage, until July 2023, more than five thousand people took advantage of it.
Support will be provided through the World Food Program (WFP) in the areas of agriculture, health, water and sanitation for four years.
“The new phase of the project will not be based on food distribution, but rather on strengthening the resilience of beneficiary communities to improve their nutritional status,” said PAM Mozambique Deputy Director.
According to Mauricio Burtet, achieving this improvement involves “ensuring food production is sufficient and nutritious,” as well as teaching families how to prepare balanced and varied meals.
Sofala Secretary of State Cecilia Chamutota has warned of the effects of El Niño in the province.
“The Chemba region, despite being located on the banks of the Zambezi River, is a semi-arid climate region with low rainfall that has been severely affected by El Niño this year,” he explained.
The director of the district economic activity service of the province of Sofala, Sidonia Enosse, said on Monday that the El Niño climate phenomenon has put about 33 thousand families at risk of hunger due to drought in the province.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries hardest hit by global climate change, experiencing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.
El Niño is a change in atmospheric dynamics caused by rising ocean temperatures. The weather phenomenon is also causing heavy rainfall in East Africa, which has already caused hundreds of deaths in Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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