Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Mozambique

April 4, 2013

Food Security Situation 

CIA World Factbook

• According to the UN World Food Program (WFP), in Mozambique half a million children 6-23 months of age are undernourished and 34 percent of the population is chronically food-insecure. In addition to being prone to severe cases of food insecurity, Mozambique is faced with a high rate of HIV infection, with approximately 11.5 percent of individuals infected.

• Mozambique is classified by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a low-income, food-deficit country, and ranks 184 out of 187 countries on the UN Development Program (UNDP) 2011 Human Development Index. It is prone to a wide range of natural hazards including drought, flash flood, cyclones, and storms, which regularly cause major damage and disrupt economic growth. Fifty-four percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

• Over 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas making small-scale agriculture an important source of income for most rural women.  Smallholder farmers represent most of the national agricultural production. 

• The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reports that January rains were the heaviest seen in the past ten years and thousands of hectares of crops were negatively affected by the excess water. These adverse conditions in central and southern pockets of the country are expected to continue through April.

Food Assistance Programs

• The Office of Food for Peace (FFP) and its partners target 428,401 food-insecure and flood-affected Mozambicans in Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Zambézia, and Gaza provinces.        

• FFP partners with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Food for the Hungry, Save the Children Federation, and World Vision-US to implement a variety of activities including agriculture development, maternal and child health and nutrition, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS prevention training, and community-based risk management/mitigation.  FFP also partners with WFP to locally and regionally procure food commodities for flood-affected populations in Gaza Province.

Food for Peace Contributions

Total Contributions:

Fiscal Year 2013 Contribution Breakdown:

Note: EFSP: Emergency Food Security Program; FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization; FEWS NET: Famine Early Warning Systems Network; UN: United Nations; WFP: World Food Program
Food Security Situation information is provided by  FEWS NET and UNDP as of April 2013