- Sweden provides $19 million in funding to support people’s resilience to climate shocks in Mozambique.
- The funding, which will be released over five years, supports a project implemented with technical support from the UNCDF.
Over the next five years, Sweden will help Mozambique’s efforts to combat climate change. The Local Climate Adapted Living Facility (LoCAL) initiative is being carried out with technical assistance from the United Nations Capital Development Fund, and Stockholm has invested USD 19 million over the following few years (UNCDF).
This facility, which has been put into use in 34 nations across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, enables local governments in least developed and developing nations to get the funding, technical support, and capacity-building they need to address and adapt to climate change. One of the African nations most susceptible to natural disasters and climatic shocks is Mozambique.
Storms and tropical cyclones have a particularly negative impact on the nation of East Africa, which is surrounded by 2,700 km of the Indian Ocean. Despite the fact that these events are natural, climate change makes them worse. In fact, Cyclone Freddy, which just slammed Mozambique and Malawi, caused 136 fatalities, 134 injuries, and 16 unaccounted-for deaths. Late in February 2023, Freddy struck the continent after striking the island of Madagascar.
Together with other vital services “chosen by the communities themselves through a participatory planning process in close interaction with local governments,” the LoCAL program also encompasses the fields of education, water, and sanitation. The LoCAL initiative in Mozambique has been in place since 2014 and reaches 33 of the 154 districts in the nation.