Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
Development
MOZAMBIQUE: Donors pledge US $722 million
2001-11-08, Issue 41
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/development/3971
Printer friendly version
International donors have pledged more than US $700 million in support of Mozambique's poverty reduction programme. A World Bank press release said 80 percent of the pledges were in the form of grants.
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
MOZAMBIQUE: Donors pledge US $722 million
JOHANNESBURG, 31 October (IRIN) - International donors have pledged more
than US $700 million in support of Mozambique's poverty reduction
programme. A World Bank press release said 80 percent of the pledges were
in the form of grants. "These contributions are in addition to the debt
service relief granted to Mozambique under the original and the enhanced
HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Countries) frameworks," the bank said.
The donor support came during the thirteenth Consultative Group (CG)
meeting of the government and its international development partners in
Maputo on 25 and 26 October.
The statement said donors "recognised" the government's "continued
commitment" to implementing economic reforms. "Despite severe setbacks
caused by floods in the previous two years, Mozambique has shown a
remarkable capacity to recover," said the statement. "Although GDP (gross
domestic product) fell to 2 percent in 2000, it is expected to rebound to
almost 15 percent in 2001 and to remain about 10 percent in 2002."
According to the Bank, delegates attending the CG meeting agreed that the
main challenge ahead of Mozambique was its ability to ensure that the poor
benefited from the country's rapid broad-based economic growth. Delegates
also stressed the need to foster gender equity, empower women, improve
maternal health, promote girls' education and protecting children, youth
and women from violence and exposure to HIV/AIDS.
The statement noted that donors agreed that the implementation of the
government's poverty reduction strategy - PARPA - was the key for
sustaining poverty-reducing growth. PARPA aims to accelerate economic
growth by increasing agricultural productivity and output, expanding
health and education services, combating malaria and HIV/AIDS and
improving basic infrastructure.
"They (delegates) noted the largest losses that have occurred in
Mozambique's two largest commercial banks ... and expressed concern about
the implications of the losses for the investment climate and for spending
on poverty reduction," added the statement.
[ENDS]
IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za
[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by
commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001
------------------
IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO SUBSCRIBERS
IRIN has introduced a brand new e-mail service allowing you to be more
selective in the information you receive. With the current system being
phased-out, please go to the IRIN web site at
http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions/default.asp to resubscribe yourself
and take full advantage of the new options that are available. This will
automatically remove you from the old distribution list. If you do not
have access to the web or experience any problems please contact
subs@ocha.unon.org and we will assist you to resubscribe.
Joanne Clarke
IRIN Customer Services
Tel +41 22 321 8425, Geneva, CH
mobile +41 078 631 9996
joanne@irinnews.org
-------------------
[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United Nations. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2001