By: Jesse Waterschoot and Akila Munir

Enabel’s Study and Expertise Fund in Mozambique is in place since 2014. The aim of this project is to support sectors through studies, consultancies and providing technical expertise in priority areas identified for the cooperation between Belgium and Mozambique. This includes climate change related themes such as (renewable) energy, water management, agriculture, as well as the health sector and gender.

With a budget of 750,000 euros, the fund supported consultancies and expertise requests from the line ministries. The results and insights of studies provided by the fund have impacted recent governmental policy changes, such as the strategy for fighting gender-based violence and the water strategy for rural areas.

While the fund has continuously received requests, budget constraints limited the number of commitments possible. Due to its relevance and significance in the Enabel portfolio in Mozambique, in December 2020, an addendum to this project was signed with an additional budget of 1,25 million euro and extension up to 2023. This allows the mobilisation of several key studies in Enabel Mozambique’s priority areas going forward. Additionally, part of these funds will be directed to support specialised technical assistance, namely a Climate Finance Advisor from the National Determined Contribution (NDC) Partnership to assist Mozambique to reach its commitment in the Paris 2015 Climate Change agreement.

Combatting global carbon emission
Enabel developed strong expertise and institutional partnerships with technical ministries in energy and water projects, closely related to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Mozambique is extremely vulnerable to climate change due to its long-coast line and dependency on the agricultural sector. Consequently, the country suffered under the cyclones and droughts of the past years. Combatting global carbon emission and joining multilateral climate initiatives is therefore crucial for Mozambique.

One of the most important recent multilateral initiatives on climate change is the 2015 Paris Agreement, that aims to keep the global average of temperature increase below 2°C. Countries that ratified this agreement committed to limit global warming and support sustainable development initiatives.

In light of this, all countries will provide a national strategy to cut their carbon emission in their national determined contributions (NDC). Of course, not all countries have equal access to the expertise and knowledge to reach this goal. To tackle this issue and promote multilateral climate cooperation, the NDC Partnership was founded, which ensures that countries receive assistance to achieve ambitious climate targets. Countries can request support for technical assistance or financial aid to the NDC secretary, that subsequently reaches out to other member states and requests them to assist.

Mozambique’s climate ambitions
Mozambique submitted an ambitious mitigation commitment plan to reduce 76.5 MtCO²e from 2020 to 2030, and in 2018 it launched a comprehensive partnership plan for climate action that includes 11 sectors. To succeed, the government identified the need for an Economic Planning and Coordination Advisor and a Climate Finance Advisor, so the Ministry of Economy and Finance decided to request assistance for those two experts to the NDC secretariat. While the Economic Planning and Coordination Advisor is being financed by the World Bank, the NDC secretariat reached out to Belgium, a member since June 2017, for funding the second advisor, because of Belgium’s active engagement in climate change across the globe, specifically with an ongoing bilateral cooperation in Mozambique.

Due to the noteworthy coordination between the different Belgian actors, including the FPS Public Health, Food Safety and Environment (focal point), FPS Foreign Affairs (focal point), and the Belgian development agency, the necessary support was secured via Enabel Mozambique’s Study and Expertise Fund. Truly a #TeamBelgium approach in actively supporting initiatives for climate action. 

In this way, Enabel was able to commit the necessary funds for the Climate Finance Advisor and helps contributing to Mozambique’s NDC engagements. The Enabel funded Climate Finance Advisor will work across line ministries and mobilise development partners to identify and develop projects and proposals to access resources from national and international sources to assist Mozambique in achieving its NDC commitments.

The addendum of the Study and Expertise Fund will be a useful tool between the Belgo-Mozambican cooperation to continue to contribute to the promotion of expertise and knowledge transfer, national and sector strategy plans and sustainable development goals.