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Mozambique

WFP Mozambique Country Brief, January 2019

Attachments

In Numbers

1,202 MT of food assistance distributed

US$ 416,708 in cash-based transfers

US$ 9 million net funding requirements for six months (January – June 2019) representing 33% of total needs

152,509 people assisted in January 2018

Operational Updates

• In January, WFP provided food assistance to 144,000 vulnerable people in the provinces of Tete, Gaza and Cabo Delgado through both conditional and unconditional transfers programs using in-kind, vouchers or cash, depending on the contexts and markets. In addition, in Gaza and Tete provinces, multi-year, resilience programming, leveraging market access and climate risk management initiatives are being planned to follow up this response, which mainstreams nutrition and gender considerations.

• WFP is supporting the Government of Mozambique with technical assistance in the area of Shock Responsive Social Protection aimed at strengthening coordination between social protection and disaster risk management while ensuring vulnerable people affected by slow onset shocks are assisted in a timely manner. In Tete province, WFP will provide unconditional cash/vouchers to approximately 120,000 drought-affected people for a duration of six months between December 2018 and April 2019 using existing national social protection schemes. The project will assist shock-affected people who are benefiting from the National Institute of Social Action’s (INAS) Basic Social Subsidy Programme (PSSB) as well as a wider range of vulnerable families.

• On 22 January Tropical Storm Desmond caused heavy flooding in Beira, Chinde and Quelimane and displaced approximately 120,000 people across Zambézia, Sofala,
Manica and Tete provinces. The next day INGC deployed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, to assess flooded areas and set up evacuation routes. INGC was able to immediately open temporary housing emergency centres to shelter the affected people.
Meanwhile, WFP activated the European Union’s Emergency Management Service to technically assist INGC with satellite-based mapping of the emergency.

• Through the INGC-led Cash Working Group, WFP is assisting to broaden the use of Cash-Based Programming in Mozambique. A final document on this subject will be presented by INGC to the Council of Ministers for approval in the coming months. Approval of the document would present an important breakthrough for Mozambique as to date the use of cash as a transfer modality in emergency situations has not been favored by the government.