Mozambique and US sign agreement valued at 500 million dollars — AIM report

Mozambique and the United States on Wednesday signed a memorandum of undertanding valued at 537.5 million dollars under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Contrary to these fears, the aid package for Mozambique was reprieved. According to a September release from the US Embassy in Maputo, “following the foreign aid review, the MCC Board of Directors met in August and recommended that the Compact for the Connectivity and Coastal Resilience of Mozambique should go ahead”.

(The aid packages disbursed under the MCC are known as “compacts”. This is “Compact Two”, since an earlier agreement between Mozambique and the MCC was implemented about 20 years ago. That Compact was budgeted at 507 million dollars).

The resumption of MCC aid, added the release “reflects continued trust in the cooperation between the United States and Mozambique, stressing the commitment to generate tangible results for the two peoples”. READ:Aide-mémoire signed under MCC Compact realignment — Millennium Challenge Account Mozambique The Compact has been under discussion for several years. The Mozambique Connectivity and Coastal Resilience Compact, to give it its full name, was signed in Washington on 23 September 2023, and the total investment is valued at 537 million US dollars, targeted particularly at the central province of Zambezia. A 2023 MCC document on the Compact noted that “two-thirds of the Mozambican population resides along the coast, which is impacted by frequent and increasingly intense cyclones, flooding, and natural disasters that overwhelm local transport networks, large and small-scale agriculture, community opportunity, and societal cohesion.” The Compact, the MCC added, “aims to address these multifaceted risks through projects that will strengthen local economies that are reliant upon agriculture and fisheries yet limited by connectivity and reliable access”.