Maputo, 11th April 2008 – Within the framework of the National Micro-Finance Strategy in Mozambique, the National Directorate for the Promotion of Rural Development (DNPDR) is implementing several sub-components within the project: “Building an Inclusive Financial Sector in Mozambique”, with the support of the UNDP/UNCDF, which includes a sub-component of HIV/AIDS.
Within the framework of the HIV/AIDS Sub-component, DNPDR has contracted the services of a consultancy to render Technical Assistance to five interested Micro-Finance Institutions, respectively: Associação Progresso in Mueda town; Primeiro Programa de Microcrédito de Cabo Delgado in the City of Pemba; Microbanco Malanga in Boane-Maputo; União das Associações de crédito in the City of Maputo and Tchuma Cooperativa de crédito e Poupança, also in the City of Maputo, to draft policies and plans on the prevention of HIV/AIDS, with the aim of reducing the spread of infections through HIV/AIDS and mitigation of its consequences at the workplace.
The main objective of this Consultancy is to mitigate the impacts of HIV/AIDS through HIV/AIDS programs at the workplace, in the Microfinance sector.
The meeting, held on 2 April, was meant to give an opportunity to all participants to discuss the first results of UNDP/UNCDF’s support and the contributions from that session are important to help the stakeholders improve their assistance in future.
UNDP’s Deputy Representative Naomi Kitahara said in her speech during the discussion session that one of the biggest challenges faced by Mozambique is the high HIV/AIDS prevalence, which has a negative impact in all sectors and that had a limiting impact for the development of the Microfinance sector in terms of the increase of business risk and in the institutions’ human resources.
Naomi stated also that UNDP is supporting the Government in the fight against HIV/AIDS in different sectors and recognizes the importance of supporting the private sector in developing HIV/AIDS strategies at the workplace. For this reason, the UNDP, in conjunction with the Government, has decided to support a limited number of microfinance institutions to develop HIV/AIDS strategies at the workplace as a pilot support project.
To conclude, Naomi thanked all the institutions involved in these activities and wished for the report being discussed to be applied as an instrument of reference in future, in order to mitigate the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the institutions.