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Mozambique: Guebuza Outlines Priority Actions for 2008
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
21 December 2007
Posted to the web 21 December 2007
Maputo
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza declared on Thursday that the priority actions for 2008 remain the fight against the obstacles to the country's development, the promotion of the factors that ensure political stability, and greater commitment to production and productivity in the context of a "green revolution".
Speaking at the traditional end-of-year reception in the gardens of the presidential palace, Guebuza pledged that, in order to advance the struggle against one obstacle to development - endemic diseases - the government will launch a national sanitation and hygiene campaign in March. The main purpose of this campaign is to reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal diseases.
Guebuza recalled that a year ago he had stressed that the battle against HIV/AIDS would be a top priority for 2007.
He said he was pleased at the way Mozambicans had involved themselves in this campaign and had broken old taboos. "The Mozambican nation now speaks much more openly about this epidemic and its dramatic effects on families and on our entire society. As well as the imperative of banking on the cheapest and most accessible weapon for all of us in this fight: prevention", he declared.
Guebuza noted that the latest statistics indicate a slight decline in HIV prevalence among Mozambicans aged between 15 and 49 - from 16.2 per cent in 2004 to 16 per cent in 2006.
"But 16 per cent is still a very high level", he stressed, "because it means we are still suffering about 500 new infections a day". He was also concerned that, despite the overall trend, some provinces have seen an increase in their HIV prevalence levels.
The scenario thus remained "dramatic", and Guebuza called for a reflection on whether "routine HIV testing" should be introduced. He pointed out that "including this option in the range of interventions against HIV/AIDS would mean revising the legislation and all the administrative procedures currently in force".
In this revision, he added, respect for the human rights of the patient must be guaranteed. This was of key importance, since it marked "the difference between routine testing and compulsory testing".
Guebuza believed that Mozambicans are now taking the fight against poverty seriously. In his visits around the country he had witnessed that "each of our fellow-countrymen is accepting that is they, first and foremost, who miust do away with poverty".
"In each of us the sense of self-esteem and of trust in our capacity to do noble things is growing", he declared.
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Visiting the districts, he had noted, how simple technologies that could significantly increase production were being introduced - such as animal traction, and the building of small dams and reservoirs to manage water resources.
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| Copyright © 2007 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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