24 August 2008
Dondo — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday declared that those who argue that poverty has not declined in Mozambique suffer from "a deficit of information", that does not allow them to have a full view of what has been done over the past 16 years of peace and reconstruction.
Speaking at a press conference in the town of Dondo, at the start of a working visit to the central province of Sofala, Guebuza said the idea that there has been no real reduction, or even an increase, in poverty, is completely wrong.
Instead, the country had changed dramatically from the scenario of desolation and absolute penury that marked Mozambique at the end of the war of destabilisation in 1992. Many Mozambicans had been pulled out of the pit of poverty to which the war had condemned them, and there could be no doubt that Mozambique was in much better shape now than 16 years ago.
A glance at the expansion in the education and health services, in the national electricity grid, and in the fixed and mobile telecommunications networks clearly showed that "the Mozambique of today is much better than the Mozambique of yesterday".
Many thousands of children no longer have to follow in their parents' and grandparents' steps and walk long distances to school, because there are now schools close to their homes. Similarly the distances that must be walked before reaching a health unit or a water source have been cut, Guebuza added. Movement around the country had also been eased by the great improvement in the quality of the roads.
"Previously, we scarcely had any of this", he said, "and this is all proof that we are overcoming poverty, that we are improving our lives, that poverty is on the decline".
"It's a fact that there are still many poor Mozambicans", said Guebuza. "It's a fact that we need more schools, more hospitals and much more. But it's also a fact that today's Mozambique is another Mozambique, much better than before the war ended".
Guebuza also pointed to the mushrooming of institutions of higher education, public and private, over the past decade and a half. This too would speed up the battle to end poverty, he argued, since "the best weapon in this fight for prosperity is knowledge, which will ensure that each Mozambican masters science and technology".
The President also called on all Mozambican to work harder than in the past, in order to accelerate the end of poverty. With more work, particularly in agriculture, it would be possible to achieve self-sufficiency in food, he claimed. This was more important than ever, due to the soaring costs of imported food.
Guebuza insisted that the government is committed to ending the hunger and penury still felt by millions of rural Mozambicans. That was the reason why the government had introduced the annual fund of seven million meticais (about 280,000 US dollars) for each of the country's 28 districts, to be invested in food production and job creation. That fund, he added, has now risen to nine million meticais a year.
But the most important factor in overcoming poverty, Guebuza stressed, was not money, but the conviction that victory is possible. Each Mozambican, he said, "must believe it is possible to defeat poverty".
Without this, no matter how much money and resources are thrown at the problem, there will be no solution, he warned.
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