Mozambique: Portugal doubles funding for education to €500,000 – Watch

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Mozambique: Portugal doubles funding for education to €500,000 – Watch

7:18 CAT | 11 Dec 2023

Photo: Embaixada de Portugal em Maputo

The Portuguese government will double its usual annual support for the education sector in Mozambique to €500,000, the Portuguese ambassador in Maputo announced on Friday.

“The Portuguese government has decided to make an extraordinary contribution of €250,000, thus totalling €500,000 for this year,” said Ambassador António Costa Moura, after signing the agreement formalising the reinforcement of aid to Mozambique’s Education Sector Support Fund (FASE) with Mozambique’s minister of education and human development, Carmelita Namashulua, in the presence of Portugal’s secretary of state for education, António Leite.

The increase in funding aims to strengthen the commitment and predictability of financial aid to the education sector, he added.

In Mozambique, he continued, the education sector has been hit hard by natural disasters and the armed conflict in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

“Education, training and vocational training are seen as added value in Portuguese cooperation,” emphasised António Costa Moura.

The focus should be on developing human and social capital, reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development with multiplier effects in other areas, he added.

“Education is, in fact, our priority and this was clearly reflected in the previous Strategic Cooperation Programme, where education, training in culture and science absorbed around 44% of the total financial envelope of Portuguese cooperation,” highlighted António Costa Moura.

Moura said that between 2008 and 2022, Portugal disbursed €3,790,000 to FASE, contributing an annual €250,000, after joining this mechanism in 2007.

Mozambique’s minister of education and human development emphasised that “strengthening Portugal’s contribution to FASE is a priority commitment for Portuguese intervention in the Mozambican education system”.

Carmelita Namashulua pointed out that the needs of the education sector in Mozambique have “increased” due to the destruction of infrastructure by “terrorism in the north” and “extreme events” in other parts of the country.

Source: Lusa