From Africa Recovery, Vol.11#4 (March 1998), page 12 (part of Special Feature on the 2-year review of UNSIA)

Mozambique plans to have every child in school by 2006

By Peter Mwaura and John Nyamu

Mozambique, which emerged from a destructive civil war only six years ago, is drawing up a strategy under the UN System-wide Special Initiative on Africa to achieve universal primary education by 2006 from an enrolment of just 50 per cent today. The World Bank and UNESCO are teaming up with bilateral donors and other UN agencies to provide technical support and other resources.

With 2.2 million children of primary school age, Mozambique's strategy aims at increasing enrolment to 86 per cent in five years and to 100 per cent during the 10-year Special Initiative. According to UNDP Resident Representative Emmanuel Dierckx de Casterle, about 66 per cent of school-age boys and 33 per cent of the girls are actually in school today in a country where most schools -- up to 80 per cent in some areas -- were destroyed during the 17-year civil war.

After the war ended in 1992, Mozambique had to resettle more than 4 million displaced people before it could concentrate on economic reconstruction. Many Mozambicans had little access to basic education or health. The goal of universal education seemed hopeless, Mr. de Casterle said, in light of other pressing problems, such as repairing all types of infrastructure.

When Mr. de Casterle arrived in Maputo in 1996 -- the year of the Special Initiative's launching -- he set about establishing a dialogue with the government, African ambassadors and donor countries. He soon discovered that Mozambique could utilize the Initiative particularly for the education and health sectors, which are critical to the country's rehabilitation. A series of discussions and contacts with the relevant ministers followed.

The ministers took the Initiative "very seriously," but had reservations about committing Mozambique, already 60-70 per cent reliant on foreign aid, to further dependency, Mr. de Casterle told Africa Recovery. However, the UN country team helped to resolve a number of problems and produce a strategy tailored to the specific needs of Mozambique. At one particular meeting, the government, the UN team and representatives of donor countries examined how best to harmonize their various programmes.

Resource mobilization efforts in the country led to a consultation on education, organized by UNESCO and held in Paris in July 1997, that generated bilateral support for government efforts to place primary education firmly within a framework for overall development. The results were excellent, commented Mr. de Casterle, who accompanied the government team to Paris. Mozambique is now working with a coalition of UN agencies and donor countries to finalize strategies for curriculum review, girls' education, distance learning, and other reforms and innovations to enable more children -- particularly girls -- to go to school. The government has also increased its budgetary allocation for education by 27 per cent.

The Mozambican experience has inspired the authorities in neighbouring Zimbabwe to request the UN Resident Coordinator to liaise with UNESCO towards a similar consultation on their education sector strategy.

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