Talking about maternal and child health with women farmers at the FFS in Boane (D. Phiri second from left)

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations's (FAO) Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa, David Phiri, on Wednesday (14/10) left Maputo after paying an official visit to Mozambique. In the three days he spent in the country, David Phiri attended the opening of the 7th session of the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission (SWIOFC), visited a project by the Mozambique representation and held high-level meetings with the Mozambican government.

According to Phiri during the opening of the 7th session of SWIOFC, on Monday morning, "FAO recognizes the collaboration and dedication of all member states and partners, who for ten years now have fulfilled a regional requirement for the cooperation in fisheries development and management". This was the first session of SWIOFC in Mozambique, since the signing of a Host Agreement of the Secretariat by the country last November, and the recent transfer of its Secretariat from Harare, Zimbabwe, to Maputo.

The following day (13/10), the Subregional Coordinator left the capital city for a field visit in Maputo Province. During his trip, Phiri was accompanied by FAO Representative in Mozambique, Castro Camarada. At a courtesy call to the district government of Boane, the District Administrator, Manuel Cambezo, thanked FAO for its support to the district, which according to the Administrator, "is the barn of the region, feeding the cities of Maputo and Matola". The group – including members of the district, provincial and national governments – then went to a local Farmer Field School (FFS), where they met the farmers working there. "FAO's FFS programme", David Phiri said, "is one of the most successful ones of the Organization. The visit to Mozambique would therefore not be complete without a visit to field activities – and, in this case, to a FFS".

Back to Maputo, Phiri had the opportunity to meet the staff of the FAO Representation in Mozambique and, on his last day, held various meetings with the ministries of both Agriculture and Food Security and Sea, Interior Waters and Fisheries, as well as with the Office staff of the UN Resident Coordinator, where he discussed priority areas of FAO in the country. According to the FAO Representative in Mozambique, Castro Camarada, the visit of the Subregional Coordinator was "doubtless an important one", since it "presented an opportunity – even if modest – of showing FAO's work in Mozambique, including the work of SWIOFC, after the transfer of its Secretariat to Maputo".