Improving Social Services & Supporting Trauma Recovery

Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province continues to experience the impact of a terrorist-influenced insurgency, which threatens peace, security, and socio-economic progress and has fueled a severe humanitarian crisis and internal displacement. Among the displaced, approximately 1.2 million individuals need social services and support, including 544,000 children and approximately 824,000 women and girls in need of gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response services. Precarious living situations and strained economic circumstances make children and women particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence, as well as early or forced marriage, heightening adverse effects on their mental and physical health.

The Social Services Work Package is led by the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) and funded by the World Bank via the Northern Crisis Recovery Project (NCRP). As a key technical assistance provider, WEI/Bantwana is focused on improving access to basic services and economic opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in two districts of Cabo Delgado, Metuge and Ancuabe.

WEI/Bantwana and its regional partner REPSSI, are partnering with two locally-based Mozambican NGOs, Fundação Wiwanana and PROMURA, to improve access to social services and create community-based support and referral mechanisms. We are developing capacities to identify and respond to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and GBV needs, as well as provide and refer IDPs to social services that foster resilience. WEI/Bantwana is providing overall program and financial management TA in addition to helping both NGOs develop robust monitoring and evaluation skills and systems.

The Social Service Work Package’s overall objective is to support trauma recovery and prevent the occurrence and/or perpetuation of traumatic experiences among the target communities. Over its 18 months of implementation, we expect the project to deliver and achieve the following:

• Provide mental health and PSS to at least 2,500 IDPs (especially survivors of GBV, women, and children, including orphans and vulnerable children, and child-headed households);
• Facilitate support and assistance to survivors of GBV across eight IDP sites;
• Build capacity of social service providers to provide timely, appropriate MHPSS and GBV response services; and
• Strengthen community-level child protection mechanisms.

“This project seeks to empower and help families rebuild their lives…allowing for school reintegration for children, support for caregivers, and strengthening of local government institutions and service providers so that they are better prepared to serve displaced populations and host communities.” – WEI/Bantwana’s Technical Advisor in Cabo Delgado