T
he Promota was privileged to have an Diogo? Or a Graça Machel, or a Celina Cossa the regions. But we are not only looking at
interview with HE Antonio Gumende, who leads a peasants’ cooperative and has won producing foods or cereals for the region. We
High Commissioner to the UK and hear an international award? You can see that women are also increasingly looking at the production
about the latest developments that Mozambique occupy an important space in our society. of renewable energy, such as ethanol. An
can be proud of. Education is of course, a good agreement has recently been approved by the
- and important - topic to start the conversation government for the implementation of the fi rst
with. QDoes Mozambique also suffer from the big ethanol project, which will be done jointly
brain drain phenomenon that we see happening with foreign investors and local companies.
Q
in other African nations? The production will be mostly for export, where
Where is Mozambique standing with there is a huge demand.
regards to Universal Primary Education? A
HE Antonio Gumende
Mozambique is fortunate to a certain extent.
We have an important barrier working in favour
A
HE Antonio Gumende of Mozambique which is our offi cial language QWhat trade policies would you like to see
As far as education is concerned, - Portuguese. This limits the scope of highly improve so that they will benefi t the economy
Mozambique has been making good progress. skilled personnel leaving for jobs overseas. The of Mozambique?
Firstly, we have expanded the infrastructure in second aspect is that Mozambique has not had
order to broaden the access of the population a pool of highly skilled professionals for a long A
HE Antonio Gumende
We would like the rules governing
to education. Secondly, as a result of that, the time because of the kind of historical problems international trade to be reformed in a way that
number of children of school going age has we have faced. At independence thirty years benefi ts the development of poor countries.
increased substantially over the years. Four or ago, 97% of our population was illiterate. Today When you say you want a development agenda
fi ve years ago, we had a school population of 2.5 it is 53%. This means that opportunities for for trade negotiations, it means that you want
million children. Today, we have over 4 million skilled people are still available in the country. to look at the most vulnerable members of the
children enrolled in the primary and secondary We do not have a surplus to requirement in international community, and Mozambique is a
education system. terms of highly skilled personnel because ours part of that group. We are a country that is still
is a growing economy. The pool of graduates to a certain extent dependent on international
Q
has been growing in the last 10 or 12 years but assistance to fi nance it social developments,
All over Africa, girls tend to drop out of so has been the economy, and as it expands, it but we have reached a stage where, in order to
school earlier than boys. They are also not easily absorbs the graduates coming out of the sustain our economy, we have to have access
always encouraged by their families to get an education system every year. to international markets. In particular, the issue
education. How does Mozambique encourage of aid for trade is very important. It is not
girls to go to school? In southern Africa, we do not talk about brain enough for the developed countries to just open
A
HE Antonio Gumende drain anymore but about brain circulation. This up markets for us. If there is no road to enable
There has been an effort to encourage means that we have skills circulating within the a farmer to export at a competitive price, there
girls to attend and remain in school. The sub-region. One of the goals is to open up the is no way that he will be able to take advantage
strongest incentive is obviously for the families boarders in the neighbouring countries, to enable of the fact that he could sell his products in
to appreciate the benefi ts of girls having an the free circulation not just of goods capital but Belgium without having to pay any tariffs.
education. Girls are also the producers and also of people. Mozambique is very proud to What must be taken into account is the issue
providers of food and their education, as a say that it has started this process, which is very of providing support to developing countries
result, gets sacrifi ced. A larger number of girls sensitive to other countries. This is because we in order to enable them to take advantage of
enrol but the challenge is to retain them in the have a protocol for free movement of people opportunities that will arise from an agreement
system. One of the reasons they tend to drop which has not yet been fully implemented on a new international trading regime.
out is because they carry a bigger responsibility region-wide. Whilst we are waiting for this
within the family. time, we have decided to go to other countries Q Let us move on to the environment.
to negotiate other bilateral arrangements at least Mozambique has a sad history of being the
Q
for free movement of people. We have such an victim of massive fl oods. Is the country able to
What female role models do you have for agreement with Malawi, South Africa, Botswana prevent such tragedies from happening again?
these young girls to help them aspire to greater and Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
achievements? A
HE Antonio Gumende
Not yet. Building a dam is a massive
A
HE Antonio Gumende investment and undertaking and we cannot
We are encouraging the training of female QHow is free trade in the southern African pretend that we have the resources to do that.
teachers as we feel that this is the best role models states going to benefi t Mozambique?
that we can produce and easily replicate across The catastrophies Mozambique has seen are
the whole country. And of course Mozambique A
HE Antonio Gumende
We will have easier access to regional mostly the result of our inability to manage
has women who have attained international markets and be able to better capitalise on our the fl ow of water when the rainfall levels are
status. Our Prime minister Luísa Dias Diogo is competitive advantage in terms of investments. above normal. When the rainfall becomes
a very strong and infl uential woman, within the From a regional perspective, certain industries unsustainable in neighbouring countries, they
country and outside too. At a political level, we coming to invest in Mozambique will look are forced to open the fl ood gates and the
are one of the few countries who have achieved at regional markets because there will be no water comes down into Mozambique, resulting
the 30% target of women representation in tariff barriers within the free trade area, which in fl oods. On the other hand, if the rainfall is
parliament. will enable them to export to South Africa or below normal, we get less water and we have
Zimbabwe. Mozambique has the potential to to negotiate with the countries who can actually
Q
produce in many different sectors. In terms of manage the fl ow. Fortunately, there is a regional
How does Mozambique in general promote water and land, our country is very blessed. We cooperation mechanism through the SADC
gender equality? have a huge potential to generate electricity not Protocol on Shared Watercourses.
A
HE Antonio Gumende just for internal consumption but also for export.
In Mozambique, this is an issue that people We look at the regional integration process with
are very open about. They are aware about great optimism. Q Do you feel that the fl oods can also be
the importance of women’s involvement and attributed to climate change?
representation. Since independence, women
have been a very strong stakeholder in the QIn which areas is Mozambique currently A
HE Antonio Gumende
Of course, climate change has got an
process of the development of Mozambique. seeking investors? impact. Some of our regions are very low lying,
In the seventies and eighties, one of the most
powerful organisations were the women’s A
HE Antonio Gumende so any increase in water level is going to result
Mozambique has a huge potential in in fl oods. Continuing rising sea levels are bound
organisations and a lot was achieved because of agriculture, to export not only to Europe, but to affect us.
the strength that women had in the Organisation also to the regions. With the elimination of
of Mozambican Women. How many countries tariffs, we might become the cheapest producers continues on next page
have a Prime Minister with a profi le like Luisa of some of the goods that are consumed within
www.thepromota.co.uk THEPROMOTA | 31
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