Challenges in Mozambique

MOZAMBIQUES CHALLENGES By Alina Sandra Silvi reverse 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 exclusively in 1977 a civil war started and lasted for 15 years by the end an estimated one million lives were lost. However, lots of things rush changed for Mozambique in a decade from being one of the poorest countries on Earth, it has joined a rarified group of success stories (Vines A. , 2004).Today, its economy is booming, absolute leanness has f entirelyen and completely is due to annexd production in agriculture the main germ through which heap sustain their livelihoods. The countrys scotch surgical procedure has been spectacular since 1994, making it one of the sterling(prenominal) recipients of foreign capital inflows in Africa. These inflows and increasing domestic increment enab conduct government expenditure on neighborly and infra structure projects to be doubled. Investment has included the two billion dollars BHP Billiton aluminium smelter the largest single investment in Mozambiques history (Vines A. 2004) admission This report go out analyze some of the problems that Mozambique is still approach because patronage the positive aspects presented, Mozambique is still struggling to achieve the eight Millennium teaching aspirations. The paper will focus on triple inequalities although altogether of them argon interrelated and all need to be achieved equally for a sustainable learning of the country. First of all, the eradication of absolute poverty and hunger will be evaluated because half of Mozambiques population is still dungeon down the stairs poverty line.Secondly, the achieving of universal knowledge will be assessed because through education mess become more informed and develop skills which can economic aid them to improve 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 biography (Madi M. and Wilson E. , 2005). In the end, the report will look at the impact of human immunodeficiency virus/ assist and separate diseases on people and at how they can be combated. 1. Extreme poverty and hunger Every day we hear on the news or read in the newspapers that more and more people are starving and live in extreme poverty.This is also the gaffe of Mozambique, a blue country due to its natural resources, with an economy considered of Brobdingnagian potential but where people still live in out of the question conditions and got to bed with their stomachs aching due to the lack of diet. Lappe et al (1998) present in their book some of the causes of the hunger and also prove that they are plainly myths myths which can be contradicted. For example, one of the myths says that there is non enough nutrition in the world and that is why some people go supperless ut, in fact, the world today produces enou gh grain itself in value to feed everyone and to provide them with thirty-five hundred calories per day. The American Association for the overture of Science found in a study that 78% of all at a depress placenourished children under five live in developing countries with food surpluses (Lappe, F. M. et al, 1998). Also countries such(prenominal) as India, Africa and Bangladesh, where hunger is at a tall level, export much more in agricultural dear(p)s than they import. All these facts led to a single conclusion that food scarcity is clearly not the cause of hunger.The main conclusion of the book solid ground hunger 12 myths (Lappe, F. M. et al, 1998) is that hunger is driven by poverty because people are in addition poor to buy readily available food and all this requires political not agrotechnical solutions. Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (2000) verbalise, Chronic hunger is related to poverty and a opinionated failure to generate sufficient entitlements in a society. The Wor ld Bank measures poverty by the percentage of people living beneath an income of one US dollar per day. (see accompaniment 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 outgrowth rate which was above 7% for much of the past decade. To continue the toilsome commitment and leadership proved since the achievement of PARPA I the Government of Mozambique have now implemented PARPA II which will be developed under the areas of macro-economy and poverty, governance, economic development, human capital and cross-cutting issues (Mozambique entropy MDG report, 2005). 2. informationThe second Millenium Development Goals Achieve universal primary education target is to look into that, by 2015, all boys and girls are able to complete a adequate course of primary schooling (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). In 1975, when the Portuguese go away t he country, Mozambiques only university lost most of its teaching staff and was hale to play its role in developing skilled manpower for the socialist experiment. The system of primary education in Mozambique contains two cycles a lower level of five years (EP1) followed by two years of higher(prenominal) level (EP2).The net enrolment rate (NER) for EP1 increased firmly amid 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 gap the NER for girls in EP1 was 66. 4% compared to 72. 4% among boys (Mozambique second MDG report, 2005). The culmination 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 financial resources are not invested in the system.The World Bank stated in a report in 1985 that the role of literacy it is very goodly in determin ing a populations level of death rate and also suggested that this factor carries far more weight than umteen 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 environs 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 on (Allen, T. and Thomas, A. , 2000).In rate to solve the education problem a first Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP I) was implemented for 1999-2003 period. The plans stopping point was to improve the education system in order to promote economic and social development and poverty reduction 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 oth er 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 HIV/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 n ecessary income in order to buy condoms or an easy access to health facilities and HIV infection programmes. Today, HIV accounts for considerable mortality and morbidity and the UN programme UNAIDS tardily estimated that by the end of 1996 more than 23 million people oecumenic 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 vulnerable one being over 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 content AIDS Council (NAC) was created to lead and direct the nationa l response to HIV/AIDS. The government also revised its National Strategic Plan to Combat 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, interrogation and investigation 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 grim in order to achieve a full and satisfactory development. The Secretary-General has describe a number of priorities for UN action to sustain the development of all countries in Africa * Regional structures must be strengthened * Their economies have to be change and increase the promotion of free-market and free-trade * Promotion of a Green-Revolution by financing the development of high-yield food crops etc. UN Chronicle, 1995) List of references Allen, T. and Thomas, A. (2000) Poverty and development into the 21st hundred 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 trim change. World development journal, vol. 60, no. 12 UN Chronicle (1995) vol. XXXII, no. 4