Local economic development improved through the District Development Fund

FDD Seminário Chimoio

Maputo, 16 April 2010 – The District Development Fund (FDD) has had a positive impact on the economic dynamics of the districts, according to the participants of the local economic development workshop held in Chimoio, Manica province, in March. The two hundred regional participants asserted that the Fund is creating suitable conditions for good management of public funds in central Mozambique.

The workshop for FDD stakeholders was part of the ongoing ART-PAPDEL programme, which is a joint effort between Ministry of State Administration through its National Directorate for Rural Development Promotion Development (DNPDR) and UNDP. The programme aims at strengthening local economic development capacities of government officers and representatives of civil society and private sector at district and provincial level.

The Governor of Manica, Ana Comoana, attending the workshop, encouraged to scale up the trainings to the province and district level. She thanked the district consultative forums ( Conselhos Consultivos Locais) and community leaders for their contributions to the consolidation of the initiative, and emphasized the alignment between FDD and other local economic development initiatives. She also underlined the necessity to support more women entrepreneurship initiatives.

FDD Seminario 190410

The training was focused on reimbursement, financing, business plans, business management, and monitoring of local initiatives. The participants worked in groups and developed value chains and business plans. These plans were related to products coming from their own communities.

The importance of the training was underscored by the fact that provincial directors of Planning and Finance, chiefs and technical staff from the Department for Rural Development Promotion Development, district administrators, directors of the District Services of the Economic and Planning activities and infrastructure, members of the district consultative forums, community leaders, beneficiaries of the Local Initiative Investment Budget (OIIL), local economic development agencies and local actors, all took part in the workshop.

The participants were also able to make themselves familiar with some of the work that the Local Economic Agency of Manica (ADEM) is doing in the province. ADEM put up an exhibition of brochures and good examples with pictures of the entrepreneurs that ADEM supports.

The workshop was the first out of three regional trainings to be held in the southern, central and northern areas of Mozambique.