Maputo — The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank on 28 April approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of 71 million US dollars to support the Mozambican government's Education Strategic Support Program (ESSP) for the years 2011 to 2015.
This is in addition to the earlier commitment through the World Bank administered Education For All - Fast Track Initiative Catalytic Fund (EFA-FTI CF) program, which totalled 90 million dollars for the period until 2014.According to the World Bank's representative in Mozambique, Olivier Godron, "I am pleased that in times of austerity and budget cuts, we are keeping our commitments, thus helping the country fill financing gaps, keep its sectorial priorities afloat, and meet its critical development challenges". to read more look here..
The money will be used to, inter alia, increase access to education, promote HIV/AIDS prevention programmes, improve the quality of education (through teacher training, and producing and distributing free primary school books) and support curriculum reform.
The IDA and EFA-FTI CF funds, totalling 161 million dollars, will be administered through the education sector donor funding pool (FASE) and managed by the Education Ministry.
Other donors to FASE include Ireland, Finland, Germany, DFID (Britain), Portugal, Spain, UNICEF, CIDA-Canada, the Netherlands, and DANIDA (Denmark). Italy and Flanders began donating to FASE in 2011, but the Netherlands will stop its contribution this year and DANIDA will end its participation next year.
The work of the Education Ministry received praise from the World Bank, whose project team leader Sophie Naudeau said "it is gratifying to see that Mozambique is making steady progress toward the achievement of universal primary education by 2015 (Millennium Development Goal number 2). Net enrolment in primary education more than doubled from 45 to 95 per cent between 1998 and 2010, and the completion rate (grade 7) increased from 34 per cent in 2004 to 50.8 per cent in 2010. A major achievement is the increase in the net enrolment rate at 6 - 7 years of age from 19 per cent in 1998 to 70 per cent in 2010
However, Naudeau warned of the need to reduce the number of children who drop out of school, remove gender disparities, and improve the quality of primary education.
The World Bank funds come at a crucial time. Last year the education sector faced a 36 per cent cut in bilateral funding and an eight per cent cut in FASE funding. These cuts have put pressure on the sector
