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Stories from the field: Towards greener food systems in Mozambique
To enable support for responses aimed at sustainable energy and environmental protection, the DRC Standby Roster recently recruited a number of experts within these areas. Egide Ntakirutimana is one of them and has since July 2023 been deployed as Energy Advisor to World Food Programme’s (WFP) operation in Mozambique. In this interview with Maral Afsharian, he shares hands-on experience with expanding access to sustainable energy and food systems in areas strongly affected by extreme weather events and climate change.
Maral: Part of your work aims at reducing negative impact of food production on climate change in Mozambique. How is climate change affecting the country?
Egide: Mozambique is one of the countries of southern Africa most affected by extreme weather events and the negative impacts of climate change, such as droughts, which tend to occur every 3 to 4 years. Over 25 million people have been affected by droughts in Mozambique since 1984. The country is also vulnerable to other hazards such as floods, periodic cyclones, coastal erosion, rising sea levels and soil salinization. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the country’s 2,470 km of coastline and its overall socioeconomic fragility. Despite urban migration, two-thirds of the population resides in rural areas and has limited access to basic services such as clean energy. 45% of people still live below the poverty line and 80% depend on climate-sensitive small-scale agricultural production for their food and livelihoods. Increased frequency and severity of climate change-induced shocks are likely to exacerbate these development challenges. Mozambique is a country where innovative approaches should and can be adopted to assist vulnerable smallholder farmers to build their climate resilience.
Maral: What are some of the main objectives and primary tasks of your deployment?
Egide: In line with WFP Mozambique’s Country Strategic Plan (2022–2026), WFP aims to use access to energy as a tool to accelerate sustainable development, support vulnerable populations, and fight climate change through supporting smallholder farmers and increasing access to modern cooking for food assisted. From the start my deployment, I was tasked to support the Climate Change Adaptive Food Systems unit to design and implement renewable energy actions within WFP Mozambique’s strategic framework.
This involves adapting and improving available energy assessment templates, identifying energy needs and gaps in the projects’ target areas and offering direct technical support on energy delivery models. I have also been tasked to strengthen the capacities of WFP Mozambique staff to implement, monitor, and report on energy interventions, as well as contribute to enhancing partnerships with other stakeholders such as donors, agencies, NGOs, government, and the private sector.
Maral: Your role focuses on both energy access and food systems. Could you tell us more about the link between those two?
Egide: Energy access affects every aspect of the food system value chain, from production to transformation and consumption. The interaction between energy and food systems has become increasingly important for WFP. For this purpose, I am supporting WFP Mozambique in making sure that clean energy access is incorporated in their climate change adaptive food systems actions in order to empower smallholder farmers to increase quality and quantity of their food production, as well as improve food processing and transformation to add value and reduce food waste.
A concrete example is the installation of low-cost solar irrigation systems that support vulnerable smallholder farmers living in drought-prone areas to diversify their production and to be able to increase harvests.
Maral: How have the energy interventions you have been involved in impacted the local communities and farmers?
Egide: Climate resilience activities of WFP Mozambique have been expanding over the past few years, and I am very happy to be part of these efforts made by WFP, the Government of Mozambique and partners in setting up sustainable and climate change adaptive food systems.
Since I joined WFP Mozambique, I have seen vulnerable smallholder farmers expanding their production in a sustainable manner with a direct and substantial impact on their families’ livelihoods. I am always happy to see a farmer smiling while looking at his/her field and feel that I have contributed to making that happen.
Productive uses of energy have a positive impact on the communities served. The Rapid Rural transformation hub in Mecufi District, Cabo Delgado province, proved that access to clean energy can improve rural communities’ livelihoods through the integrated approach of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystem nexus. The solar hub serves as a one stop landing spot where people can go to do business, learn, have access to internet and benefit from services to which they had no access before.
Maral: What would you say are the biggest challenges in your work?
Egide: My work involves working with vulnerable communities affected by extreme weather events or conflicts, and this often means starting from building trust to engage them in new programmes and interventions and identify their needs. Also, the deteriorating global situation has led to decreased funding for development contexts. Moreover, due to the short lifespan of funding allocations, it is highly challenging to address the root causes of food insecurity and design and implement sustainable interventions. We are under pressure to do more with less resources and do so in a short timeframe. Finally, data driven decision-making is key for designing interventions but in some cases, data is not available or not disaggregated; this may lead to inadequate decision-making and inefficient resource allocation which directly or indirectly affect the various projects and its participants.
Maral: You have now been deployed for almost a year. What are some experiences and lessons learned that you would like to share with others going to the field?
Egide: When joining a new agency and starting a new deployment, it is crucial to make sure that you learn fast about the systems and processes and become a collaborative team member. It is also important to consider the actual priorities within the unit or department hosting you. When I joined WFP Mozambique, I discovered that given my background, I could also contribute to water resource management, nature-based solutions, environmental and social risk screening. I consider being involved in more than one area a true success.
Maral: Is there anything else you would like to share from your deployment in Mozambique?
Egide: The agricultural sector represents one-quarter of GDP and is a major source of employment for over 70% of the population in Mozambique. The agricultural sector is clearly a drive for the country’s development hence it is imperative to spread climate change adaptive food systems in order to support smallholder farmers to build their climate resilience and enhance their livelihood. To do so, local knowledge needs to be taken into consideration and combined with science-based data during project design and implementation. I am very proud to be part of the above process and I am sure this experience will remain with me for long.
