Challenges in Mozambique

MOZAMBIQUES CHALLENGES By Alina Sandra Silvi rob Mozambique, by its official name the Republic of Mozambique is a country in south-eastern Africa which in 1505 was colonized by Portugal. The country became independent in 1975 but in 1977 a civil war started and lasted for 15 eld by the end an estimated one(a) cardinal lives were lost. However, lots of things have changed for Mozambique in a decade from macrocosm one of the poorest countries on Earth, it has joined a rargon group of success stories (Vines A. , 2004).To sidereal day, its economy is booming, absolute indigence has fallen and all is collectible to increased production in agriculture the main source done which people sustain their livelihoods. The countrys economic performance has been spectacular since 1994, making it one of the superlative recipients of foreign capital inflows in Africa. These inflows and increasing domestic festering enab lead government expenditure on complaisant and infrastructure project s to be doubled. Investment has included the two billion dollars BHP Billiton aluminium smelter the largest single enthronization in Mozambiques history (Vines A. 2004) Introduction This report leave behind analyze some of the problems that Mozambique is placid liner because despite the positive aspects presented, Mozambique is still struggling to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals. The paper go out focus on 3 inequalities although all of them ar interrelated and all need to be achieved equally for a sustainable development of the country. First of all, the eradication of absolute meagreness and longing allow for be evaluated because half of Mozambiques population is still backup below poverty line.Secondly, the achieving of universal education will be assessed because through education people become more informed and develop skills which can serve well them to correct their lives someone once said, Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime (Madi M. and Wilson E. , 2005). In the end, the report will look at the impact of human immunodeficiency virus/ help and separate diseases on people and at how they can be combated. 1. Extreme poverty and hungriness Every day we hear on the news or read in the newspapers that more and more people atomic number 18 starving and live in extreme poverty.This is likewise the case of Mozambique, a rich country due to its natural resources, with an economy considered of huge potential but where people still live in unimaginable conditions and got to bed with their stomachs aching due to the lack of food. Lappe et al (1998) present in their book some of the causes of the hunger and also prove that they ar only myths myths which can be contradicted. For example, one of the myths says that there is not plenty food in the solid ground and that is why some people go hungry ut, in fact, the world today produces enough grain itself in order to feed e veryone and to provide them with thirty-five hundred calories per day. The American Association for the Advancement of Science found in a study that 78% of all down the stairsfed children under(a) five live in ontogeny countries with food surpluses (Lappe, F. M. et al, 1998). Also countries such as India, Africa and Bangladesh, where hunger is at a high level, export much more in agricultural goods than they import. All these facts led to a single final result that food scarcity is clearly not the cause of hunger.The main conclusion of the book sphere hunger 12 myths (Lappe, F. M. et al, 1998) is that hunger is driven by poverty because people are too poor to buy readily available food and all this requires political not agrotechnical solutions. Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (2000) stated, continuing hunger is related to poverty and a persistent failure to generate sufficient entitlements in a society. The World Bank measures poverty by the percentage of people living below an i ncome of one US dollar per day. (see appendix 1, fig. ) The proportion of the population living under the poverty line declined from 69. 4% in 1997 to 54. 1% in 2003. The main factor that led to such an improvement was the economic growth rate which was above 7% for much of the past decade. To continue the strong commitment and leadership proven since the achievement of PARPA I the Government of Mozambique have now implemented PARPA II which will be real under the areas of macro-economy and poverty, governance, economic development, human capital and cross-cutting issues (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). 2. EducationThe second Millenium Development Goals pass on universal primary education target is to ensure that, by 2015, all boys and girls are able to get it on a full course of primary schooling (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). In 1975, when the Portuguese left the country, Mozambiques only university lost most of its teaching staff and was forced to play its role i n developing skilled manpower for the socialist experiment. The system of primary education in Mozambique contains two cycles a spurn level of five years (EP1) followed by two years of higher level (EP2).The net enumeration rate (NER) for EP1 increased substantially between 1997 and 2003, from 44% to 69. 4% (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). Despite this progress Mozambique is still facing a high level of geographical and residential disparities, and also a gender cleft the NER for girls in EP1 was 66. 4% compared to 72. 4% among boys (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). The completion rates in EP1 also increased from 22% in 1997 to 38. 7% in 2003, however, the country will not achieve the MDG target for 2015 if substantial and pecuniary resources are not invested in the system.The World Bank stated in a report in 1985 that the role of literacy it is very powerful in determining a populations level of deathrate and also suggested that this factor carries far more weight tha n numerous others, including income growth (Allen, T. and Thomas, A. , 2000) Female education also has an important role in providing good health because an educated woman is capable of creating a healthier environment for her family. This idea has been supported by two of the World Banks publications one in 1983 and the other in ten years later (Allen, T. and Thomas, A. , 2000).In order to solve the education problem a first Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP I) was implemented for 1999-2003 period. The plans goal was to improve the education system in order to promote economic and social development and poverty reducing in Mozambique (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). In 2005, the second ESSP was approved covering the period 2005-2009 its role is to continue the elaborate of the first ESSP but also to strengthen it. 3. human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS and other diseases The death rate of children under five years old in the least developed countries is 40% and the rate for people under 65 is 84% compared with only . 7% and 23% respectively in rich countries (Allen, T. and Thomas, A. , 2000) . All these deaths are generated by diseases attack, especially the infectious and parasitic ones. The greatest threats for Mozambiques development are human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS. From 1998 to 2004 the HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults has increased from 8. 2% to 16. 2% although it varies greatly between the three regions of the country. (see appendix 1, fig. 2) In 2003 1. 5 million Mozambicans had HIV/AIDS (8% of total population) the majority being represented by women (58%). Among those living with HIV/AIDS 5. 8% were children under 15 years old.An important thing to bear in mind is that just as HIV and AIDS generate poverty and inequalities so do poverty and inequality facilitate the transmission of HIV. This happens because people in poor areas do not have the indispensable income in order to buy condoms or an easy access to health facilities and HI V infection programmes. Today, HIV accounts for considerable mortality and morbidity and the UN programme UNAIDS recently estimated that by the end of 1996 more than 23 million people worldwide were infected with HIV and more than 6 million people had died with AIDS (World Bank, 1997).Moreover, HIV/AIDS facilitate the transmission of other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) the most unprotected one being again the poor ones who live in overcrowded conditions and have very low incomes. In fact, TB is now one of the leading causes of death among adults in many developing countries and it is estimated that it kills about three million people a year. The increase in fatal cases parallels the AIDS epidemic in many countries (Allen, T. and Thomas, A. , 2000).In order to confront this problem, in 2002, a multi-sectoral National AIDS Council (NAC) was created to lead and coordinate the national receipt to HIV/AIDS. The government also revised its National Strategic Plan to Comb at HIV/AIDS and created a second one, for the period 2005-2009, that will prioritise the following seven areas prevention, advocacy, stigma and discrimination, treatment, mitigation, research and probe and coordination of the national response (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). ConclusionThis report presented only three of the inequalities facing Mozambique when, in fact, there are much more and all of them are interrelated, creating a vicious cycle that needs to be upset(a) in order to achieve a full and satisfactory development. The Secretary-General has outlined a number of priorities for UN save to sustain the development of all countries in Africa * Regional structures must be strengthened * Their economies have to be diversified and increase the promotion of free-market and free-trade * Promotion of a Green-Revolution by financing the development of high-yield food crops and so on UN Chronicle, 1995) List of references Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (2000) Poverty and develop ment into the 21st century Lappe, F. M. , Collins, J. and Rosset, P. (1998) World hunger 12 Myths Madi, M. And Wilson, E. (2005) Poverty in Africa. The world today journal, vol. 61, no. 11 Report on the Millenium Development Goals Mozambique (2005) online available from 12 February 2011 Vines, A. (2004) Mozambique Orderly change. World development journal, vol. 60, no. 12 UN Chronicle (1995) vol. XXXII, no. 4