Speeches Shim
Life-long learning begins with the mastery of reading and extends upward into higher skill areas that are a “must have” for individual and national development. High illiteracy impedes economic and social progress. In Mozambique, 40% of adults over 15 cannot read and write and female literacy lags far behind male literacy at 33%. With half the population under 15, education is important to continuing gains in peace and well-being and to enable the country to attract investment.
Mozambique is the third most vulnerable country in Africa to disaster risks (according to the UN’s Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction). Frequent natural disasters disrupt livelihoods and food production of the most vulnerable people, undermining the fight against extreme poverty. During the last 35 years there were 75 declared disasters in Mozambique consisting of 13 drought events, 25 floods, 14 tropical cyclones and 23 epidemics (Instituto Nacional de Gestao de Calamidades, 2016). The regional El Niño-induced drought emergency of 2015-2016 was the worst in 35 years.
Mozambique has made progress since the end of the civil war in 1992 in building a stable and democratic state. However, the benefits of economic and social development have not reached the majority of the population of 28 million, roughly half of whom are under 15. To meet the needs of citizens, government institutions must be more transparent, accountable, responsive and effective. Deepening democratic governance is all the more important to achieving stability and ensuring that economic growth benefits all Mozambicans as the country prepares to reap the benefits from an abundance of hydrocarbon, mineral and other natural resources.
Salang Tunnel, which is the only access in the eastern Afghanistan for commercial route, linking Afghanistan to Central Asia. The tunnel is a strategic asset through which over 80 percent of Afghanistan’s north-south commerce passes.
The 25 megawatt (MW) Herat Wind Farm will demonstrate the commercial viability of generating affordable, reliable, and accessible power from wind resources in northwest Afghanistan. The private sector Independent Power Producer (IPP), 77 Construction, will design, build, own, operate, and maintain the 25 MW Wind Farm in Herat for 20 years under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS), the Afghan national electric utility. As part of USAID’s effort to create opportunities to support private sector investment, USAID will cost-share the project with the IPP, contributing $23 million of the $43 million project cost. The power produced by the wind farm will help meet the residential and commercial energy needs of up to 300,000 Afghan citizens and businesses.
Agriculture is the backbone of Mozambique’s economy with more than 80% of the population employed in this sector, 90% of those being women. However, the sector’s performance is characterized by low levels of production and productivity due to numerous challenges. These include the adverse impacts of climate change and climate variability (droughts, floods, emergent crop and livestock pests/diseases); lack of availability and access to quality inputs and technologies; soil degradation and low fertility; poor capacity for disease surveillance and control; inadequate veterinary services; insufficient extension services and poor linkages between extension and research. As a result, the Mozambican Ministry of Agriculture and Food security (MASA), in partnership with FAO, would like to build its capacity to improve service delivery to farmers to counter the climatic and pest/disease challenges facing them.
Mozambique’s agricultural sector comprises an overwhelming majority of smallholder farmers. About 70 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, which serves as the main economic sector in Mozambique (24 percent of GDP). Only 16 percent of the country’s 36 million hectares of arable land is currently under cultivation. In addition, due to obstacles such as lack of access to financing, markets and quality inputs, productivity of small-holder, family-based agriculture is very low. Agricultural development is the key to reducing poverty. USAID agriculture focused programs use a value chain approach to strengthen the agribusiness sector through improved linkages between smallholder farmers and large commercial agribusinesses, processors, and traders. Productivity, processing, and marketing of staple agricultural commodities are expanded by enhancing access to finance, forging public-private partnerships, providing business development services, and improving the business-enabling environment.
Military operations by Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and Turkish-supported opposition groups that began on October 9 displaced up to 215,000 individuals in parts of northeast Syria’s Aleppo, Al Hasakah, and Ar Raqqah governorates, according to the UN. As of November 4, nearly 115,500 people had returned to areas of origin, while more than 99,600 people remained displaced. Large-scale TAF military operations subsided in mid- and late October following various political agreements, prompting some displaced individuals to return to areas of origin; however, hostilities continue to damage civilian infrastructure and exacerbate humanitarian needs, relief organizations report.
Despite strong and sustained economic growth over the past decade, the Mozambican economy has undergone minimal structural transformation. Specifically, growth has not translated into increased employment opportunities. The latest estimate of the unemployment rate is 23% overall, with more than a third of youth between 20-25 years of age unemployed. These figures have remained largely unchanged over the last decade. Coupled with Mozambique’s high population growth rate of nearly 3% per year, the employment situation suggests that most of the 300,000 new entrants into the labor market each year will not find stable employment.
The Government of the Russian Federation (GoRF) and Syrian Arab Republic Government (SARG) announced a unilateral ceasefire in Idlib Governorate on August 31 following several months of a continued GoRF and SARG offensive targeting armed opposition group (AOG)-controlled areas of the governorate. While the number of airstrikes subsided following the ceasefire announcement, relief actors continued to report instances of shelling and isolated airstrikes in southern Idlib through September. The UN reports that GoRF and SARG airstrikes killed more than 1,000 civilians in northwest Syria between April 29 and September 30.
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