The Mozambican Association of Economists (AMECON) held, on the occasion of the commemorations of the Mozambican Women’s Day, on the 7th of April, a debate under the slogan “Socio-economic Impact of Gender Inequality”, with the objective of raising focal points around the problematic of gender inequality, bringing to debate aspects around the advances that Mozambique has been achieving in this chapter.
Fernanda Massarongo, World Bank analyst, recalled that, firstly, in relation to leadership positions, ten of the 22 ministers are women; secondly, in relation to school attendance by women, the number of years of female schooling has grown rapidly, with the average having evolved from one year of schooling in 2003 to five years in the last survey of 2015 according to data from poverty analysis, placing women close to the level of men, whose average is six years; lastly, the fertility rate has been declining significantly over the last 20 years, having dropped from six children per woman to less than five children at the moment.
The World Bank analyst also warned of important challenges: first, the country has one of the highest rates of early pregnancy in Africa. The number of children of women aged between 15 and 19 is among the highest on the continent; secondly, in education, the literacy rate for women is almost 75% lower than that of men.
In the labour market, although women are increasingly participating, no more than 6% have salaried work, compared to almost 20% of men; thirdly, the representativity of women in business, although tending to grow, most of the companies owned by women are informal. And the few formal companies owned by women, when compared to those owned by men, have a lower business performance.
For Luísa Diogo, former Prime Minister and one of the panelists in the debate, she believes that it all starts with the insufficient understanding of gender inequality and the impact that this phenomenon has on societies. For the economist, who today holds the position of PCA of Absa, this understanding is fundamental because human beings and societies move, first in their consciences and then in their actions, and it is their consciences that build their actions.
“One must be aware that a bad situation should not continue as it is, and to do this one must understand it. From understanding one must create the need to change, which can only be done with policies, strategies, actions and activities, since experience has also shown that debate alone cannot move societies”
“For there to be actions, one must look, in this case, at women, who represent 77% of the rural population. In other words, the policies to be developed must lead us to include rural areas in the process of change. Policies are important, but action is fundamental and for there to be action we need to look at three factors, namely the human factor (the woman herself), the land (which has influence on the development of the rural population) and capital”.
Also on the panel for the debate were Luísa Tivane, economist and director of the National Investment Bank (BNI), Ernesto Macuácua, researcher in Gender and Political Participation, among others.
