The Government of Mozambique, in partnership with the African Development Bank Group and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has launched the Resilient Investment for Socio‑Economic Empowerment, Peace and Security (RISE‑PS) Project to restore livelihoods, boost economic growth, and strengthen peace in northern Mozambique. The initiative focuses on the districts of Palma and Ancuabe in Cabo Delgado province, where years of insecurity have disrupted local economies and displaced thousands of residents.
The project is backed by a $28 million blended investment package, including contributions from the African Development Bank, UNDP, the Government of Germany, private sector partners, and the Government of Mozambique. Implementation will be led by the Northern Integrated Development Agency, with support from UNDP.
RISE‑PS is expected to directly benefit around 24,000 youth—half of them women—along with more than 3,000 female-headed households and over 7,300 local enterprises. Indirectly, the initiative will enhance infrastructure, employment opportunities, and investment flows for the wider population of Cabo Delgado, estimated at 2.74 million, and the broader northern region of 11.6 million residents.
The programme will support 108 private-sector partnerships to create structured youth internship opportunities and provide technical and soft-skills training. It will also develop a climate-smart SME Village in Afungi and attract up to 100 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises to newly developed industrial and serviced facilities.
A key focus of RISE‑PS is empowering young women in conflict-affected districts through vocational training, grants for women-led businesses, inclusion in priority value chains, and promotion of women’s leadership in community decision-making.
Officials emphasized the transformative potential of the initiative. Mozambique’s Minister of Planning and Development, Salim Cripton Valá, highlighted the importance of infrastructure for stimulating private investment and generating employment. African Development Bank Country Manager Rômulo Cunha Corrêa noted that RISE‑PS addresses the drivers of fragility by strengthening institutions, resilient societies, and private investment, offering hope to thousands of young people and women. UNDP Resident Representative Edo Stork emphasized that the programme represents a shift from emergency stabilization toward sustainable development.
Ahead of the launch, a three-day Technical Induction Workshop aligned partners on governance, environmental and social safeguards, procurement standards, monitoring and evaluation systems, and risk-management protocols. The initiative also included a high-level roundtable to accelerate transformative investments, with the African Development Bank highlighting the potential to replicate the Peace and Security Hub in other fragile regions to mobilize impact investment for peacebuilding and resilience.
