Mozambican Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Helder Muteia described the signing of an agreement with the World Food Programme (WFP) in Maputo on Monday for a Food Fund for Development as "a clear sign of the implementation of development orientated programmes in the country".
"This is a very important agreement for the lives of the peasants, because it means a turn around from programmes orientated exclusively to emergency, into new ones, veered into development", Muteia told reporters shortly after the ceremony.
With this agreement, the WFP is pledging a support worth a little over two million US dollars for the next five years, to be used in food-for-work programmes.
Muteia said that with this money, Mozambique will be able to develop initiatives to allow people now living out of donations to develop self-sustainability.
He explained that the money will be used to help build irrigation systems, roads, and other such infrastructures to have the peasants no longer depend much on donations or on climate factors.
For her part, the WFP representative in Mozambique, Angela Vanrybach, said that this agreement reflects the confidence of her institution in the Mozambican government.
The money thus granted is to allow the rural communities in districts affected by chronic food insecurity to create means of self-sustainability and make them less vulnerable to natural disasters.
Fonte: Noticias
