Mozambique Annual Report 2020: Responding to a Year of Crisis

In the case of Mozambique, the pandemic came on the heels of two destructive cyclones that had devastated large parts of the country in 2019 and whose consequences were still being felt. In northern Mozambique, increasing violence in Cabo Delgado province resulted in a surge of internally displaced persons into local communities in Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa provinces. With host communities ill equipped to meet the needs of those displaced, this population movement created a new humanitarian crisis in the midst of the pandemic. Like all of our governmental, civil society and donor partners, the resilience of UNFPA was tested, and we had to adjust quickly after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in March and the Government declared a state of emergency. At the most basic level, women continued to get pregnant and babies were still being born, even in the middle of a pandemic. Addressing the needs of adolescent girls and young women could not be put on hold. Helping to meet the needs of the symbolic target of UNFPA’s work – “the 10-year-old girl” – could not wait until she was 11. Helping to meet her aspirations for the future, advocating and working for her growth and self-fulfillment as a woman leading a healthy, productive and violence-free life – these could not wait a year.