The President's Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA)

Working in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Mozambique, USAID/Mozambique has developed a country strategic plan and a closely integrated action plan that focuses on implementing activities that will support the six core themes of IEHA. The six core themes are:

• Advancing scientific and technological applications and support services that harness the power of new technology (e.g., information technology and biotechnology) and global markets to raise agricultural productivity, create agriculture-based enterprises and support sustainable land use management.

• Improving the efficiency of, and participation in, agricultural trade and market systems for major African products in local, sub-regional and international markets and the integration of African countries into global markets for agricultural goods and services.
  

• Promoting and strengthening community-based producer organizations to help link business and farmers to create new opportunities that add value, raise incomes, deliver services and increase the participation of the rural majority in decision-making processes.

• Building the human and institutional capacity to shape and lead the policy and research, as well as provide agricultural education.

• Integrating vulnerable groups and countries in transition into sustainable development processes.

• Strengthening environmental management to a) conserve and foster the production of environmental goods and services that contribute to economic growth and b) make agricultural production and water management environmentally sustainable.

In keeping with the pillars above, the Mozambican Action Plan focusses on three investment options - strengthening the Instituto de Investigação Agrícola de Moçambique (IIAM), capacity building in trade and agribusiness and the strengthening of farmer associations.

1. IIAM is a semi autonomous national agricultural research institute that will ultimately coordinate the deployment of agricultural research funds. IIAM is receiving support from the Ministry of Agriculture through general government treasury transfers, dedicated investments under the multi-donor supported sector investment program called ProAgri, and through discrete project assistance.

   Under the IEHA Action Plan, USAID supports IIAM through its support to ProAgri as well as technical assistance to IIAM. The Mission has recently negotiated a 5 year grant with Michigan State University to provide technical assistance. This IEHA-funded contribution will total $5.8 million over five years and be complemented by an additional $1.9 million in ministry’s resources secured under ProAgri.

   A further $6.18 million over five years is programmed through six US private voluntary organizations to augment public sector outreach support to farmers from IIAM decentralized zonal research centers, engage farmers in participatory research activities, develop capacity of production and marketing groups to move towards association level activities and promote the transfer of technology to a broad segment of the more than 3 million small scale farming households in Mozambique.

   USAID’s Program Assistance resources also enable the Ministry of Agriculture and IIAM to honor agreements with the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research Centers such as the Institute for Crop Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture/ Southern African Root Crops Research Network (IITA/SARRNET). ICRISAT links sources of improved cereal and legume seeds with rural merchants and associations and IITA/SARRNET provides improved sweet potatoes and cassava planting materials that are drought and disease resistant and rich in vitamin A.

2. Capacity building in trade and agribusiness is being supported by the offering of scholarships to Mozambican students to study abroad in the areas of agriculture and economics. Currently two students are attending Earth University in Costa Rica. Earth University is a private, international, non-profit university offering an education in agricultural sciences and natural resources in order to contribute to sustainable development in the humid tropics.

   Beginning in 2005, eight students from Mozambique will be attending various universities in South Africa to study for either a masters or honors degree in economics. The universities include the University of Pretoria, the University of Stellenbosch, the University of Cape Town and the University of The Western Cape. Prior to being sent to the various universities, all of the students attended an intensive English language course at the University of Stellenbosch.

   This program will help create economic literacy capacity for Mozambique throughout various disciplines. The students came from various backgrounds including journalism, international relations, government service or had just recently graduated from local universities in Mozambique.

3. For many years, USAID Mozambique has supported association development and will continue to do so throughout the strategic period that ends in 2010. In prior years starting associations has been a priority, but now the emphasis will be on strengthening associations to become more viable business entities.

   The work in association development will be closely linked to the work in USAID Mozambique’s support for Business Development Services (BDS). It is anticipated that approximately $7.2 will go to support these two areas over the next three years.

   The main goal of this program component is to pprovide BDS activities to help expand and strengthen the number of rural enterprises operating in the rural areas in Mozambique. Many of these businesses are either agro-processing businesses or somehow related to agriculture and provide cash markets for commodities raised by association members, so the link between USAID Mozambique’s support for association development and BDS is very important. As with all programs in the area of economic development, the ultimate goal is to raise the incomes of farmers.

For more information on the Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, please see USAID's Presidential Initiatives page.