Marques Joao picks through a mountain of plastic waste in Pemba, northern Mozambique, collecting bottles for recycling. He works for ASMOG, a community organisation that sells collected plastic to recycling companies. Eugidio Gobo, who leads ASMOG in Pemba, says the local government does not recycle plastics. ASMOG collects around 10 of the 130 tonnes of plastic generated monthly in the municipality, mostly from beaches. But the environment in which these groups operate is becoming increasingly challenging.
Cabo Delgado province, where Pemba is located, is one of Mozambique's poorest regions. It is battered annually by climate change-intensified cyclones and has been torn apart by an Isis-linked insurgency that has displaced 700,000 people since 2017. As needs grow, international aid is shrinking, putting immense strain on community groups that provide vital support.
Abdul Tavares, who works for the democracy and rights organisation CDD, describes the impact of aid cuts by countries like the US and UK. "We were funding business cooperatives, legal assistance and advocacy on public policy. Without resources, none of these activities are possible," he says. CDD recently downsized to a smaller office in Pemba. Globally, Mozambique is one of the countries most affected by aid cuts, with US funding falling from $820 million in 2024 to $240 million last year, following the shutdown of USAID.
In the village of 25 de Junho, Bashiruna Bakar recalls the support that USAID provided for healthcare, farming and food. "Now, this aid has gone. The farmers are crying... There is no food," he says. Yet Bakar finds optimism in the village's embrace of internally displaced people (IDPs). A solid grey house, owned by one of the 9,000 IDPs who have settled there, is a sign of inclusion and prosperity. Farmers gave land to the displaced three months after their arrival, a decision made through the village's development organisation (VDO).
Since 2000, the Aga Khan Foundation has helped establish over 100 VDOs across northern Mozambique. These bodies identify community needs and lobby local government for funding. Manuel Teodoro, a district official, calls VDOs "the right hand of local government." Návia Glória, from another organisation supporting 30 VDOs, says "there's a magic to these groups." Lisa Kurbiel of the UN’s Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund notes that these organisations "understand the nuances of poverty, exclusion, and opportunity, and remain when projects end and headlines fade."
