The non-governmental organization Save the Children plans to support 13,645 Mozambican families in actions for climate change adaptation, social protection, and income generation through 2029, via the LINK project, presented today in Maputo.
The initiative was presented by Save the Children’s Project Director, Lionel Langa, on the sidelines of the roundtable on Adaptive Social Protection in Mozambique, held under the motto “Strengthening Climate Resilience through Dialogue, Knowledge and Community Action.”
According to the official, the project was designed to complement the Productive Social Action Program (PASP), implemented by the Mozambican government to promote socio-economic inclusion and strengthen the response capacity of vulnerable households.
The LINK is set to directly benefit 3,645 PASP-covered families and a further 10,000 families through community interventions for climate adaptation, totaling 13,645 households.
“Our aim is to ensure that PASP beneficiary families have access to opportunities to generate income and ensure that they are more resilient to the climate events they are exposed to,” said Lionel Langa.
With completion planned for 2029, the project is concentrated mainly in semi-arid areas, considered particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
According to the official, communities are facing increasingly extreme climate phenomena of various kinds.
“In areas so prone to drought, we also see floods, therefore we are called to a much more incisive intervention to ensure that we really strengthen the resilience of our communities,” he said.
Save the Children’s director, Ilaria Manunza, argued that the growing exposure of families to climate shocks, including those associated with the El Niño phenomenon, requires mechanisms capable of anticipating risks and reducing social impacts.
“It is precisely here that adaptive social protection plays a fundamental role. When a family loses its harvest due to drought or sees its house destroyed by a cyclone, children are among the most affected. Their nutrition deteriorates,” she stated.
According to the official, the effects of climate change also increase the risks of school dropout and other forms of social vulnerability, potentially turning temporary shocks into prolonged crises.
“The experiences of the LINK project, funded by the Green Climate Fund, also show us that sustainable solutions require effective coordination between social protection, climate adaptation, disaster risk management and local development,” she added.
Ilaria Manunza also argued for the need to involve communities in defining responses and to ensure the participation of women, youth, children and people with disabilities.
For her part, Gertrudes Jonas, the representative of the Ministry of Labour, Gender and Social Action, considered that the project contributes to improving knowledge about climate impacts and strengthening public policies of social protection.
According to the official, the initiative is being implemented in nine districts of Gaza Province in the south of the country, and Manica and Tete in the central region.
