Augusta Maita sworn in as INGC general director

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Augusta Maita sworn in as INGC general director

2:50 CAT | 20 Oct 2018

Photo: Notícias

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Friday urged the leadership of the country’s relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), to ensure the greatest speed and efficiency in assisting the victims of natural disasters.

Speaking at the Maputo ceremony where he swore Augusta Maita into office as the new general director of the INGC, Rosario also recommended greater coordination with all the various bodies involved in disaster prevention and mitigation. He called for multi-sector coordination to guarantee implementation of the government’s Master Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction, for the period 2017-2030

The Prime Minister urged Maita to continue the process of identifying, mapping and monitoring zones at risk from various phenomena, including erosion, floods, high winds, cyclones and droughts.

“In the tasks you are taking on as from today”, he told her, “we expect you to impose greater transparency in the management of the resources allocated to the institution”.

Strict management of the INGC’s resources, said Rosario, would be determinant in mobilising still more resources and in strengthening the trust of the INGC’s local and international partners.

The Master Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the accompanying Disaster Management Fund, he added, are intended to make the country more resilient to natural disasters. Implementation of these documents, approved by the government in 2017, would safeguard human lives, as well as property and social and economic infrastructures.

“This approach”, said Rosario, “seeks to ensure that the population, its means of livelihood, and public and private infrastructure are effectively resilient to extreme climatic events.”

For her part, Maita said that her priority is to approve the INGC’s 2018-19 Contingency Plan, and go immediately into action, since the 2018-19 rainy season has already begun.

She recognised that the INGC “has a very experienced team, and all I have to do now is to join that team”.

The INGC has been without a general director since May, when President Filipe Nyusi promoted the previous occupant of this post, Joao Machatine, to Minister of Public Works.

Maita became a familiar figure over the past few weeks as the mayoral candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party for the central city of Beira in the municipal elections. She is generally held to have run a competent and dynamic campaign, but could not defeat the incumbent mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, the leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). The Frelimo list she headed took 29 per cent of the vote, coming second to the MDM with 45 per cent.

Before this appointment, Maita was permanent secretary of the Sofala provincial government, a post to which she was appointed in November 2017. Her previous positions include chairperson of the Board of Directors of the National Sustainable Development Fund, and deputy director of the Economic and Financial Studies Department in the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

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Source: AIM