MOZAMBIQUE: “LOCAL CLIMATE ADAPTIVE LIVING FACILITY (LoCAL) IS THE BEST MODEL TO RESPOND TO THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE”

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At the annual LoCAL Board meeting in Mozambique, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance Domingos Lambo declared that “LoCAL is the best model to respond to the needs of the people.”

More than 150 government employees and administrators from the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Nampula, Niassa, and Zambezia gathered in Marracuene, Maputo, for the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL) annual assessment as well as to talk about local governance, the public financial management system, and climate change planning.

In order to give local governments in five districts in the province of Inhambane and eight districts in the province of Gaza access to climate money in 2014, the LoCAL Facility was established. By 2023, 30 of Mozambique’s 154 districts in nine of the country’s 11 provinces would have used the LoCAL approach.

Through the technical assistance of the UN Capital Development Fund, the governments of Belgium, Catalonia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Union support LoCAL in Mozambique.

“We held this event at a time when the government planning approach must be based on results, with priority given to the observance of the principles of transparency in the management of financial resources and accountability”, affirmed Domingos Lambo, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. “We recognize the value of LoCAL and its contribution to fighting climate change in Mozambique”, he continued.

“And we thank LoCAL for strengthening the capacities of local actors to improve the performance of their activities, with special attention to planning, budgeting, accountability, procurement, acquisitions, as fundamental premises for public finance management in a participatory and inclusive approach in Mozambique.”

For the Permanent Secretary of the Mozambican Ministry of Economy and Finance, “LoCAL is the best model to respond to the needs of the people, by enhancing the reach of the State and dialoguing directly with communities, their needs and their hopes.”

Jadwiga Massinga, National Director for Climate Change at the Ministry of Land and Environment, was also present at the event and stated that everyone sees “the effects of climate change in our daily lives; Climate change is a fact.”
Mozambique ranks among the top three countries in Africa that are most vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, Mozambique has been hit by six cyclones and two tropical storms, impacting around four million people. Cyclone Freddy is the latest of these, affecting around 800,000 people when it blasted the country in March and April of this year.

Locally-led Development

The LoCAL methodology strengthens the capacity of local governments to improve the delivery of climate-resilient basic services to communities and to enhance decision-making processes based on local knowledge, using Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants.

This means providing capacity building and technical assistance to governments so that communities can genuinely participate in planning, budgeting, and other local governance processes.

To do this, it uses a participatory, gender-sensitive and bottom-up approach to challenges, which through the use of local consultative councils ensures essential buy-in from communities. First, local communities are engaged in what they consider to be their greatest needs, proposals are then forwarded to local and then provincial administrations.

“The Consultative local councils are extremely important, as they respond directly to the needs and hopes of the communities,” affirmed Romana Baulane, Gaza Provincial Director of Economy and Finance.
Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants provide additional decentralized resources to finance local climate resilient investments decided and prioritized by the communities themselves. Annual performance of local authorities determines their budget allocation for the following year.

“Local governments budgets will be reinforced with US$ 5.3 million, in 2024, to finance community needs to be better prepared to face climate change – based on their priorities and their results monitored through the Performance Based Climate Resilience Grants,” highlighted Ramon Cervera, UNCDF Representative in Mozambique.

With generous support from Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, the European Union and the Catalonia Region, around 100 adaptive development infrastructures have already been financed during the implementation of the LoCAL Facility in Mozambique. LoCAL has already directly benefited some 3 million people in the country – almost 10% of the Mozambican population through the channeling of US$ 25 million directly to local governments.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).