Mozambique Turns Potential into Progress through Leadership and Partnership

You’ve heard me say it before: African nations have great potential, particularly for food security. And Mozambique is no exception. Through leadership and partnership, it’s turning that potential into real progress and opportunity.

Last week, I was honored to witness history when Mozambican leaders came together with more than 150 representatives from donor countries, civil society and the private sector to chart a bold path forward to achieve sustainable food security and nutrition.

This two-day official launch of Mozambique’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Maputo provided an important opportunity for participants to have an open dialogue and outline concrete next steps for ensuring mutual accountability and tracking progress at the country level over time. It also enabled discussions around reforming policies that have stifled agricultural innovation, development and growth in Mozambique. Such reforms are the key to unlocking private investment, which is critical to sustainable development.

In his opening remarks, Minister of Agriculture Jose Pacheco quoted a conversation he once had with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug, who said, “Sure, Mozambique has huge potential, but you can’t eat potential.” Pacheco went on to say that Mozambicans need to transform that potential into something useful. While the country’s poverty and undernutrition rates remain high, Mozambique has the potential to grow into a breadbasket for the region. In addition to its vast amounts of fertile land and ideal location along major trade corridors and ports, Mozambique has one of the strongest records of economic growth in Africa, averaging eight percent per year over the last decade.

Recognizing that donor funding is ultimately finite, the Government of Mozambique has committed to take the necessary steps to create a policy environment that fosters private sector investment in agriculture, which will help ensure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of public sector efforts. Development partners within the G8 and other countries stand ready to assist and support this policy transformation, knowing that if we want our collective efforts to truly reach scale, ensure farmers (especially women) have improved access to markets, and encourage creativity that drives innovation, we need the private sector as a full partner —not just an investor—to contribute energy and expertise to help build and extend value chains and markets across Mozambique.

The second day of the event drew strong participation from the private sector. One local Mozambican company shared how they provided nearly $1 million in credit for inputs to smallholder farmers who saw their production increase by $10 million as a result. Through the company’s efforts, almost 43,000 smallholder farmers now receive inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizers; have access to improved production technologies; and are selling to a guaranteed market, providing the company with a constant supply of high-quality products for its processing unit.

This was just one example of the positive impact the privatesector is having by collaborating with smallholder farmers in Mozambique. In 2012 alone, the private sector invested $7 million worth of agricultural inputs in smallholder farmers. As a result, these farmers received $60 million from purchases of their products, providing them with opportunity, access and incomes that will transform their lives.

In addition to bringing together representatives from diverse sectors and perspectives, the New Alliance launch event illustrated the dynamic transformation that can happen with Mozambique’s demonstrated leadership modeled on the type of country ownership envisioned in the Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security and carried forth through platforms like the African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP). In fact, Mozambique officially launched its CAADP agricultural development investment plan last Friday.

Through Feed the Future, the United States looks forward to continuing our close collaboration with the many partners who attended the meeting as we grow and develop together through the New Alliance.

Read more about Africa’s potential in a blog about my previous trip to Ethiopia for the annual CAADP Partnership Platform meeting last month.