USAID-Mozambique Partnership

USAID’s community care program in Cabo Delgado, the northernmost province of Mozambique. Photo by: USAID Mozambique / CC BY-NC After three decades of civil unrest, violence and economic difficulties, Mozambique finally gained stability in 1992, when a peace accord was signed between the ruling party’s Mozambique Liberation Front, or Frelimo, and the opposition movement Mozambican National Resistance, or Renamo. But even as the sub-Saharan African country experienced strong macroeconomic growth in the years since, human development remained sorely lagging. Mozambique has consistently placed near the bottom of the U.N. Development Program’s Human Development Index. In the latest assessment, Maputo ranked 185th out of 187 countries. Nearly 60 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day, and the majority does not have access to basic health and social services. Meanwhile, national institutions are weak and ineffective. All of these indicate the country will not be able to meet any of its Millennium Development Goals by 2015. In its current development cooperation strategy with Mozambique, the United States has pledged to help the country leverage emerging opportunities to achieve inclusive socio-economic development. The United States also recognizes the game-changing potential of Mozambique’s recently discovered hydrocarbon reserve, which has affected not just the sub-Saharan African country’s economic profile but also its foreign assistance landscape. The U.S. Agency for International Development is helping Maputo ensure revenues from natural resource extraction would translate into equitable economic growth.Funding levelsThe premise of the United States’ 2014-2018 development cooperation strategy with Mozambique is that inclusive socio-economic development would be possible if the country’s citizens are healthy, well-educated, politically active and trained to succeed in the private sector, and if its government cultivates a competitive free market and manages its natural resources responsibly. Thus, the overarching goals of U.S. programming in Mozambique are to: 1. Strengthen democratic governance of Mozambican institutions. 2. Accelerate resilient, broad-based economic growth. 3. Improve labor quality through education and training. 4. Improve the health status of targeted population groups. Extractive industries, private sector, gender and youth are four major cross-cutting themes and are USAID priorities as well. Since 2009, the United States has been providing more than $300 million in development assistance to Mozambique annually. The estimated allocation for fiscal 2014 is $403.2 million, up 6.7 percent from actual fiscal 2013 disbursements. The request for fiscal 2015, meanwhile, has dropped to $388.4 million. Below is a breakdown of aid allocations per account from fiscal 2013 to 2015. To address the dismal health situation in Mozambique, 85.7 percent of the estimated allocation for fiscal 2014 will go to the health sector. Key interventions for fiscal 2015 include: - $5 million to expand and improve community-based activities to treat tuberculosis and to address multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. - $29 million to accelerate efforts toward ensuring 85 percent of vulnerable groups receive malaria prevention and treatment interventions. - $20 million to expand immunization campaigns and improve health facilities, as part of efforts to reduce preventable child and maternal deaths. - $13 million to provide long-acting contraceptives and family planning services. - $5.1 million for efforts to introduce more nutritious food into household diets. Economic development is a priority as well. For fiscal 2014, 9.4 percent of the estimated allocation will be spent on generating rapid, sustained and broad-based economic growth in the country. Improving the agriculture sector, which currently employs 70 percent of the population, is also among key interventions. Below is a sectoral breakdown of U.S. aid for FY 2014: Development assistance has typically been given in the form of general budget support, and often accounted for half of the government’s budget. But because of poor governance and corruption issues, a number of G19 donors have suspended general budget support to Mozambique. While the United States has not suspended any form of assistance to Maputo, it has installed mechanisms to ensure appropriate usage of financial support. In line with USAID Forward reforms, the United States’ results-focused approach in Mozambique will involve improvements in monitoring, evaluation and learning throughout the country. It will also focus on innovations in agro-processing of healthy food, climate change adaptation and mobile technology. But Mozambique is also at a turning point. The country, which has been led by Frelimo since it gained independence from Portugal in 1975, will be holding its general elections in October 2014. The election results will determine the course of the political, social and economic prospects of the country and will likely have an impact on the foreign assistance landscape as well. Contact USAID/Mozambique Tel: (258-21) 352-000 Fax: (258-21) 352-100