Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Mozambique

UNDP Administrator dispatches Special Emergency Team to Mozambique

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.