Africa-Press – Botswana. The United Nations System mobilized US$650,000 for two emergency and food security projects in Cape Verde, given the effects of the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the drought in that Portuguese-speaking country.
At issue is an agreement for financing for projects to be developed on the islands of Santo Antão and Santiago, the most agricultural of the archipelago, signed yesterday in Praia, between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). ) and the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment, aiming to mitigate the consequences of five years of severe drought in the country, combined with the economic effects that are still felt from the Covid-19 pandemic and now the inflationary crisis.
At a time when the archipelago imports 80 percent of the food and 75 percent of the energy it consumes, the Cape Verdean Government requested support from the United Nations System, namely through FAO, for the response and protection plan for poor families. and the informal sector, when the food emergency crisis already affects more than 10 percent of the population, according to official data.
“The archipelago is going through a delicate moment in terms of food security, which could deteriorate further in the near future if preventive and urgent measures are not taken to safeguard food accessibility, national production and livelihoods”, said the representative. from FAO in Cape Verde, Ana Touza, at the signing ceremony of this funding, which is part of a mitigation plan defined two years ago by the Cape Verdean Government with the support of the World Food Program.
The total financial support for the two projects to mitigate the effects of the crisis, in the amount of US$650 thousand (633 thousand euros) from various international donors, included US$400 thousand (390 thousand euros) of support provided by the Government of Belgium, to which add a third project, worth US$250,000 (243,000 euros), to be financed directly by FAO, explained Ana Touza, guaranteeing that it will also be signed “soon”.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
