Africa-Press – Mozambique. The European Union and the Mozambican government this Thursday launched, in the centre of the country, the Local Development for the Consolidation of Peace (DELPAZ) project, part of an initiative budgeted at €26 million, an official note indicates.
The project aims to “create conditions” for peace by financing income-generating activities and improving governance at district level, as part of support for war-affected communities in central Mozambique.
“The launch will be an opportunity to discuss the importance of improving socio-economic opportunities in communities affected by conflict, as a way to contribute to a more inclusive and equitable development at the local and national level,” the note relates.
DELPAZ is part of the European Union’s broad support for the implementation of the 2019 Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement. The four-year programme is budgeted at €26 million, one million of which is provided by Austria, and will be implemented by the United Nations Fund for Capital Development (UNCDF), the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), with the participation of district governments, civil society and programme beneficiaries.
The initiative is part of the European Union’s support for the implementation of the Agreement for Peace and National Reconciliation, signed in August 2019 between the President Filipe Nyusi and the leader of the National Resistance of Mozambique (Renamo), Ossufo Momade.
The National Peace and Reconciliation Agreement provides, among other aspects, for the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) of the armed wing of Renamo, having already covered more than 2,600 guerrillas out of a foreseen total of 5,000.
The agreement is the third to be signed between the government of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) and Renamo, the main opposition party, all three following cycles of armed violence between the two parties, affecting mainly central Mozambique.
In an interview with Lusa in June of this year, the ambassador of the European Union in Mozambique, António Gaspar, said that, most of the total €62 million that the organisation pledged for peace in Mozambique will be channelled to communities directly affected by the conflicts.
