Organizations propose to use part of the future sovereign fund in education

A executive coordinator of the Education for All Movement (MEPT), Isabel da Silva, said that the organization advocates a specific mechanism to strengthen investment in school infrastructure, materials and other needs of the education system.

“While MEPT, we defend the need to invest more in the education sector, especially in financing (...) focused more on the investment component,” said Isabel da Silva, in the margins of a round table on development financing, held in Maputo, which brought together civil society organizations linked to budget monitoring and the education, health and social protection sectors.

Asked by Lusa about the amount planned for the fund, it explained that there is not yet a defined value, but that the MEPT has a positioning document and a guiding script establishing lines for its possible operation.

Among the funding sources advocated by MEPT is the allocation of a percentage of the sovereign fund, in addition to the mobilisation of other national resources, in a strategy that the organisation considers necessary to strengthen the investment component in education. The proposal plans to meet needs such as building classrooms, improving infrastructure, providing school portfolios and materials and supporting students' food.

Isabel da Silva pointed out difficulties in teaching conditions in various areas of the country, highlighting the provinces of Niassa and Zambézia, and reported that a school recently visited in the district of Angoche, Nampula province, had a ratio of 272 students per teacher, a situation that she considered illustrative of the challenges related to the lack of teachers.

The leader also mentioned situations of students who study sitting on the ground or under trees and lack of school feeding in some communities, reporting that during visits to the terrain some children said they wanted to leave school early because they felt hungry. According to Isabel da Silva, the possible fund should also consider these conditions, because they influence the teaching and learning process.

The round table brought together organizations that also work in the areas of health and social protection, with participants defending a more coordinated action in monitoring public finances and influence on public policies. The objective is to develop a joint action plan, with a horizon of 2029, to follow the current cycle of governance and strengthen the intervention of civil society in these sectors.

The executive director of the Mozambican Debt Group and member of the Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO), Rogério Uthui, in turn, argued that civil society should have greater weight in the processes of consultation and formulation of public policies, considering that organizations can collect information directly from communities.

“I think we should jump to a stage where everything civil society says becomes binding”, said Uthui, not necessarily referring to a formal binding, but to the need for civil society contributions to be duly considered by public institutions.

Uthui defended the strengthening of the State's capacity to mobilise internal revenue and expenditure reduction, arguing that the country faces financial limitations and that available resources are largely absorbed by current expenditure, while high needs persist in the social sectors, namely education and health.