Global Summit of Women 2003
Marrakech, Morocco

PREPARING WOMEN FOR THE 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE

Luisa Diogo, Minister of Planning and Finance,  Mozambique

 

Madame Chair,

First of all I would like to express my gratitude for this opportunity to discuss the very important issue concerning the preparation of Women for the 21st Century. Let me congratulate the organizers because this Summit is not only concerned with professional issues affecting women already engaged in the modern sector, but essentially those women that have been left behind along the process of development. In fact, the program was wise enough to consider women development and conflict prevention, health and the HIV-AIDS pandemic, entrepreneurship, innovative technology, finance, and leadership.

Dear Colleagues,

Approaching development with equity in the majority of our countries mean that women should be the priority focus and therefore, specific actions should be taken in order to meet their needs. This is also true for my country where when indicators of well-being are low this is strongly influenced by low development indicators of women. For instance, in the education sector, where the progress in enrollment rates managed to improve from 91% in 2000 to 100% in 2001, this rate is lower among girls, 96%, than among boys, 106%. In the health sector, the average distance to a basic health service has been lowered from 12 km to 10 km between 1997 and 2001. However, a third of rural women do not have pre-natal care. 

Tackling gender development disparities is not an easy task, for two thirds of the Mozambican population live bellow poverty line. However, we are preparing Mozambican women for the 21st Century. The following long-term objectives concerning women have been pointed as:

(i)         Increasing the awareness on the women rights in the society;

(ii)        Introducing the gender perspective into the policy formulation and analysis, and into the national development strategies;

(iii)       Enhancing women participation in all decision making levels, and in all political, economic, social and cultural areas, while offering her equal opportunities and afirmative action;

(iv)       Reviewing all gender biased legislation;

(v)        Improving working conditions for mothers;

(vi)       Increasing women enrollment and higher education achievements;

(vii)      Supporting the female head of households whose living standards are low.

Given this general framework, various activities have been developed within line ministries with important complement by NGOs and international organizations. To what concerns gender budgeting, efforts were developed to integrate gender objectives and the respective financial allocation into the planning documents, mostly the Economic and Social Plan, the Public Budget, and the PRSP. This is considered in an integrated context. This approach provides means to monitor the evolution of the government actions in favor of women and the respective impact, in an transparent way.

The exercise of integrating the gender dimension into the Economic and Social Plan is recent, and effective progress is visible among sectors that already had the initiative of identifying specific actions towards women in the PRSP, and in the sector strategic papers. This is the case of education, health and social assistance sectors. It is expected that while sectors gain technical capability this exercise will cover all public dimension of gender activities.

To what concerns the human resource dimension of gender planning it can be said that there is an improvement in the integration of women at the decision-making level. In the case of the Ministry of Planning and Finance, for instance, from the 4.000 employees, more than 30%  of the decision making positions are filled by very competent women.

Paralell to the gender budgeting exercise, a number of activities are being developed either at the macro-economic level, or at each sector`s mandate.

At the macro-economic level we can firstly identify the reduction of military expenditures  to finance the identified development priorities for the poor and women. In 1992, for instance, 17% of the internal financial resources were spent  in military expenditures, but these expenditures were lowered to only 5.5% of the budget, in 2001. The introduction of the PRSP enhanced even more this approach by focusing on poverty reduction through expenditures in infrastructure, education, health, roads and agriculture. The overall executed budget to these sectors have risen from 60% of the public budget in 1999 to 67% in 2001 with education and health absorving the major part.

Secondly, we can mention the implementation of a taxing system that is progressive in order to protect low-income groups even tough the general macro-economic objective of the country is to reduce dependence from external resources. Under this taxation system lower income groups of the population as well as basic goods and services, and the small enterprises, where women develop their buiness, are tax exempted.

Third, is the export orientation policy, that have been allowing women farmers to export their output (like corn) in order to meet the increasing demand for these products in neighbouring countries.

Fourth, is the tariff control in order to protect women entrepreneurs from unfair competition.

At the sector level a wide range of activities are being developed in order to enhance the economic situation of women. We can distinguish in the first place the investment in rural market and infrastructure network such as roads, electrification, telecommunication and water, including irrigation.

In the second place, are the activities aimed at increasing the productivity of farmers and providing market information to rural population. These activities concern the development of a program of plant/animal  production and protection, rural extension services, and the distribution of drought resistant seeds.

Thirdly, the policy of financial liberalization comprehended a component of finances for the poor. Within this framework micro-finance institutions are allowed to operate free of taxation. These institutions are progressing from finance supply to major urban areas to the rural ones.

Dear colleagues,

Let me finalize with the most important sectors for preparing women for the 21st workforce. The education and health. We have to strugle for the Millenium Development Goals. That is our vision and our goal. It will be very difficult to succeed in the business and other challenges if we dont invest in education. In Mozambique, the activities concern the extension of education to all with focus on girls and rural areas. Currently, these activities have been accompanied by free delivery of text books, exemption from school fees, building water supply systems in the way between schools and population settlements, and income support to children belonging to poor households. In the health sector, the objective is the protection of children and mothers. Components of nutrition were integrated in order to attend cases of acute nutritional deficiencies. Strong attention is being paid to issues like family planning and the combat and prevension of HIV-AIDS.

Madame Chair,

To meet the women needs is a challenge. There are many constraints that we will have to face in order to make these actions effective to all in a sustainable basis.

The first problem is the size of population in need. As several participants mentioned during this Summit, the majority of the population live in absolute poverty. As such it is difficult to expect short-term solutions for everyone. We find that poverty reduction and the preparation of women for the 21st Century can only be achieved in the medium and long run.

Second, growth of productivity in agriculture cannot be achieved only by national efforts. The international environment on trade policy is also important for the promotion of poor countries outputs and gain alternative sources of income.

Third, income generation alternatives should be stimulated by generating employment in the manufacturing and other modern sector. So education and training are key.

This Summit has been a learning and teaching process for all of us on more innovative ways to improve women living standards, and accelerate the process of development.

Thank you.