Moamba, 6 April 2011 –  Seven years ago Mr. William Chongo from Mubobo community in Southern Mozambique went to the bush near the power line to cut some trees for charcoal. He stepped on a landmine. It exploded. Since then this man with a wife and three grandsons has worked as a subsistence farmer with one leg and walking sticks.

During the event of the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action in Maputo Province, Moamba District, Mr. Chongo told his story as a reminder: clearing land of explosive remnants of war saves lives and protects livelihoods.

Maputo, 1 April 2011  – Doug only works in the mornings, with sun block on his ears and tail. He walks straight along a string like a small dog controlled by its handler in the cleared bush forest in the Southern Mozambique until he stops, and scratches at the ground. Doug has detected the location of a landmine with his nose.

Doug, like his 35 other trained rat-colleagues, works in demining in Gaza Province, just north of the capital of Maputo, in Mabalane, in a subsistence farming community of 6,000 inhabitants, with children, goats and cows walking in the vicinity. Dough will work also on the 4th of April, the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

Maputo, 15 March 2011 -  “The most serious flood alert in lower Zambezi River valley seems to be over. The water level has not flowed over the river banks, the soil is still absorbing water, and only some communities  have had to resettle, voluntarily”, says UNDP Chief Technical Advisor Titus Kuuyuor working for the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC). He has recently returned from the joint Government and UN field visit to the most vulnerable communities of Zambezi and Chire River to monitor the level of damage caused by the current floods and check the communities’ needs for resettlement and other support.

Guijá, 11 February 2011 -   “No rain - no crops - no food - famine.” These were the words of the community chief’s wife in Nalazi, a drought-prone area. Rainfall in Nalazi changes its pattern every year, making it hard for the community to predict and harvest its crops properly. In such conditions, storing rainwater in cement cisterns is one of the ways to prevent dehydration among the community members and provide water to cattle and crops.

Chibuto, 20 December 2010 -  In the beginning of December saw a field in Chibuto, in Gaza Province, transformed for just one day into a mobile emergency operations centre. INGC (National Institute for Disaster Management) staff, officials from different Government sectors, and international partners worked busily to analyse information transmitted from villages and districts affected by a flood situation in the Limpopo river basin.

Guijá, 11 August 2010 -  “Here in Nalazi, nature is dry, very dry. When the rains come, the soil is wet all over, but in a while, everything is gone. No one is harvesting water. ” Mrs. Eufrazia Moiane shows a modern looking concrete water harvesting system for animals. The pump was destroyed decades ago. “Our community would be happy to have any training or support. We really need water to improve our livelihoods.  The drought causes scarcity of drinking water and losses of crops and cattle. “

Maputo, 11 August 2010 -  As part of their remit to serve and protect its citizens, the Government of Mozambique’s Police Force and Customs Authorities have the responsibility to manage upwards of 25,000 state owned firearms and those seized during operations, including arms caches left from the country’s years of conflict. This management can involve physical storage of firearms and ammunition as well as their destruction when they are no longer required by the state and thus considered obsolete. The Government of Mozambique has indicated that ensuring the secure and effective management of its state firearms is a priority.

New York, 21 June 2010 – From 14-18 June, 124 U.N. member states, regional and UN bodies as well as 260 civil society organizations discussed how to better control small arms, reviewing the progress made under a 2001 U.N. programme to control the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Representatives of the government of Mozambique’s national small arms agency participated in the conference, supported by two representatives from UNDP Mozambique. 

Maputo, 26 April 2010 -  Building rehabilitation, irrigation systems, livestock corridors, are some of the concrete results beginning to emerge in the UN Joint Programme on Environmental Mainstreaming and Adaptation to Climate Change, financed from the MDG Achievement Fund and funded by the Government of Spain. The results achieved include also raising awareness of the implications of climate change within the communities and the progressive mainstreaming of climate change adaptation measures into district development plans.

Maputo, 2 June 2010 - UNDP Mozambique’s Annual Report was published at the end of May. It illustrates a considerable range of results and highlights achieved through UNDP’s support to the government in its efforts to eradicate poverty, foster democratic governance, prevent crisis, adapt to climate change, and provide policy and economic analysis. Besides government, UNDP works with civil society organizations, other UN agencies and various other partners in Mozambique.