Maputo, Aug. 22, 2025 (Lusa) - The United Nations on Friday highlighted Mozambique's efforts to integrate gender equality into public policies, but called for the country to commit to materialising policies that ensure access to "adequate funding" for women's initiatives.
"Mozambique has shown regional leadership by integrating gender equality into its public policies, mobilising communities and promoting legislative reforms, but we need commitments to be accompanied by adequate funding, effective monitoring and the active participation of women at all levels," said Marie Laetitia Kayisire, representing the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator in Mozambique.
During the launch of the Beijing+30 national report in Maputo, she promised that the United Nations would continue to support Mozambique in implementing policies for gender equality, with only five years remaining of the Sustainable Development Goals (2030), which include advances in access to opportunities for women.
At the same event, the minister of labour, gender and social action, Ivete Alane, noted the increase in institutional births in Mozambique, from 87% in 2019 to 93% in 2023, as a result of the expansion of the network of sexual and reproductive health services and programmes in the country.
"In health, we have expanded the network of sexual and reproductive health services and programmes, family planning and cervical cancer screening. Thanks to the creation of mother-in-waiting homes, institutional births grew from 87% in 2019 to 93% in 2023, an important milestone in reducing maternal mortality," the minister said.
She warned of the persistence of serious challenges such as "the need to remove structural barriers to women's full development, ensure greater access to basic services and decent employment", and also pointed to the need to eliminate gender-based violence and early unions definitively.
She said that the government would continue to implement women's empowerment programmes, with special attention to conflict-affected regions.
On Thursday, she warned of the increase in cases of gender-based violence in the country, advocating effective policies and "firm action" to curb inequalities.
Lusa previously reported that Mozambique registered more than 9,000 cases of gender-based violence (GBV) and 4,000 cases of domestic violence in the first half of the year, local authorities announced on 22 July.
"In terms of domestic violence, in this first half of the year, we had 4,812 cases, compared to 4,751 [in 2024]. (...) We had an increase of 71 cases," said the head of the Department of Assistance to the Family and Minors Victims of Violence of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM).
In the whole of 2024, according to figures released last March by the government, Mozambique registered more than 20,000 cases, the majority of which were cases of domestic violence against women.
PME/ADB // ADB.
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