New York, 2 March 2000 - Following
the Secretary-General's appeal for intensified response to the flood-besieged
country of Mozambique, the Administrator of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), Mark Malloch Brown, has dispatched a Special Emergency
Team to the country directly from Glen Cove, New York, where he is chairing
a global meeting of UNDP Resident Representatives/UN Resident Coordinators.
The team will enhance the capacity of the UNDP office in Maputo and coordinate
closely with the Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs to provide
additional technical and organizational support to the government and people
of Mozambique.
The Special Team consists of experienced
UNDP Resident Representatives and personnel from neighbouring Angola, Botswana,
Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Additional support from UNDP teams from China and
Venezuela, countries with flood experience, are also being mobilized. The
Director of the Emergency Response Division from UNDP/HQ will be part of
this team which will not only backstop ongoing efforts by UNDP in the flood
emergency but will also look at providing additional coordinated support
from UNDP country offices in the southern Africa sub-region.
Additionally, through its contacts and networked presence in the region, UNDP will help Mozambique and its neighbours in their leadership of the coordinated international response. UNDP will provide assistance to a number of southern African countries such as Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe that have also been affected by the severe weather situation.
"We have two goals: first, to help Mozambique and its neighbours organize an intensified response to the expanding crisis; and second, to start working today on the response to the longer-term development challenges which this crisis has thrown up," said Mark Malloch Brown.
For further information please contact Sid Kane (516) 671-6400 or (516) 674-2973 at UNDP in Glen Cove or Salomao J. Manhica (258-1) 490-337 at UNDP in Mozambique.