More than two decades ago a baby in Mozambique made headlines around the world. Her name is Rosita Pedro, and she was born in a tree.
Her heavily pregnant mother and the rest of her family climbed the tree to escape devastating floods. The torrential rain that lasted for days had washed away roads, homes, schools, and other critical infrastructure in one of the most severe weather events to hit the country at the time. Rosita was born in March 2000. Now as a 23-year-old, she still lives in one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Mozambique regularly experiences shattering storms, floods, and other climate-induced natural hazards. In February this year, Cyclone Freddy battered Mozambique, not once, but twice, making it the longest-lasting storm of its kind and one the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) called “incredible and dangerous.” Hundreds of thousands of people were affected across the region, particularly in Mozambique, Malawi, and Madagascar. CNN reported at least twenty-seven deaths.
Building Mozambique’s climate resilience
All this was the backdrop to an invite from the Mozambican Ministry of Land and Environment (MTA) who requested that Climate Investment Funds (CIF) join it and the Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) for a high-level country engagement. The purpose of this joint effort was to strengthen Mozambique’s ability to build resilience to a range of climate vulnerabilities, from storms and cyclones to droughts and detrimental impacts on its biodiversity.
Speaking during a panel discussion, Jadwiga Massinga, MTA National Director of Climate Change, explained why the forum was particularly important as Mozambique prepares to update its national climate strategy in two years' time. The private sector and citizens, more broadly must engage with the process, as Massinga notes: “[W]e must think about how to access to climate finance and technologies to improve our performance as a vulnerable country and how we can reduce this vulnerability and strengthen the private sector and other sectors of society.” CIF has partnered with the government of Mozambique over a number of years through its Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) and Forest Investment Program (FIP). Thus, the country engagement, held from April 26 to 28, 2023, aimed to build on this partnership and expand it to include more private sector participation. The meeting provided a platform for learning as well as sharing experiences and insights from Mozambique, as well as from policymakers, business leaders, and practitioners across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Epifania Gove, Senior Technical Lead with the Energy Desk of Banco Comercial e de Investimentos’ (BCI), attended the meeting and took to social media to highlight why these partnership efforts can spur learning that advances collective action for Mozambique and its neighbors. Through Linked In she commented: “Three days of very interesting and rich debates. It was indeed insightful to learn how the private and public sectors of not just Mozambique, but also from neighboring countries are seeing and tackling the climate issues! This is a global issue that requires frequent debates and most of all, joint action!”
B-Lab Africa is a company based in Nairobi, Kenya, which creates standards for, and certifies businesses, to align with sustainable economic and environmental principles. Its Chief Executive Officer, Lucy Muigai, believes that businesses on the continent can be, in her words, “both profitable and purposeful.” Participating in the Maputo meeting has increased her knowledge, expanded her contact database, and deepened her understanding of how her company can support climate resilience across the continent. “I am creating very valuable relationships and networks. I have learned how to tap into investment through multilateral development banks [and] how we can collaborate as an ecosystem: civil society, government, and the private sector. [We all] need to be involved in this conversation on climate action: How can the private sector, not only in Mozambique but in the whole of Africa, get involved and solve the social and environmental issues [linked to climate change].”
Through CIF investments in resilience and forestry, the Mozambican government has demonstrated that it puts people and communities at the center of its climate goals to deliver transformative results, says Lorie Rufo, who leads CIF’s PPCR. But, she says, much more climate finance is required to meet the demand in Mozambique and climate-vulnerable countries around the world. The private sector across the African continent can boost investment flows and encourage more innovative and transformational climate finance approaches.
Mozambique cannot avoid severe climate-induced hazards such as Cyclone Freddy, nor can it guarantee that the flood, which forced Rosita Pedro’s mother into a tree, does not happen again. But it can continue to raise its climate ambitions, build resilience, and confront its climate vulnerability, by proactively seeking out and engaging with the private sector.