Over a million Mozambican children of school age will be unable to attend primary school in 2004 for sheer lack of space in the classrooms. According to Virgilio Juvane, the National Director of Planning in the Education Ministry, it is mainly the shortage of schools and of teachers that leads to this situation. The million children in question are aged between six and 13 and should, in principle, be studying in first and second level primary education (grades one to seven).

Responsible for directing and managing the implementation of the Institute's HIV/AIDS prevention and care program in Mozambique. Serves as the FHI representative with relevant private and public agencies, organisations, National AIDS Control Program, USAID, and other donors regarding the Institute's program and activities.

In 1994, Elias Timoso left his home in the Manica province of central Mozambique to study Portuguese and English in Zimbabwe. Two years later, he returned to his home, Manhemé, with a mission to teach basic literacy classes to willing students - a critical step in addressing the poverty of his village.

Mozambique's electoral commission announced this week that the opposition Renamo party had won the port city of Beira, while authorities promised to investigate claims of irregularities during the local elections.

Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi last Thursday officially launched a national survey on perceptions of governance and corruption in the country as part of public sector reform started in June 2001. "The proper functioning of the public sector is a condition sine qua non for consolidating democracy in the country since it will allow the established public powers to respond to the demands of society, and to exercise the State's role of guaranteeing citizens' rights," he said at the launch.

A recent post-harvest survey in Mozambique has shown worrying levels of vulnerability for children and orphans due to the combined impact of drought and HIV/AIDS. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said additional analysis of data collected by the national Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) in May and June, showed that "maternal orphans were found to be 50 percent more likely to be chronically malnourished than the general child population and 120 percent more likely to be severely chronically malnourished.

Carlos Cardoso, Mozambique's most famous journalist, was gunned down on a Maputo street on 22 November 2000. Three years later, the identity of all the persons involved in his death is still unknown, even though six people were convicted in an exemplary trial. At least one of the instigators behind the contract killing is still at large. This is the main conclusion of a report issued by Reporters sans frontières (RSF) on 21 November 2003.

Mozambique's generally peaceful and problem-free local elections have been marked by low voter turnout, observers say. In many places less than 15 percent of registered voters bothered to cast their ballots on Wednesday, mirroring the turnout in Mozambique's last local elections in 1998, which were boycotted by the main opposition party RENAMO. The link below will take you to an IRIN story on the elections and more detailed stories contained in the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin.

Polling stations in central Maputo opened on time on Wednesday for Mozambique's second municipal elections, and the build-up of queues indicated that this time there will be a reasonable turnout.The orderly and efficient scenes at the polling stations contrasted with the chaos that had marked the first local elections in 1998.

Initial reports indicate quite a low turnout in most places, but in many places a sharp difference was noted between people who had registered this year and those who had registered in 1999, according to the Mozambique Political Process Bulletin (MPPB).

Members and sympathisers of Mozambique's former rebel movement, the Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (Renamo), seized Radio Mozambique journalist Salvador Januario at the weekend and held him prisoner inside the local Renamo offices in the northern province of Cabo Delgado for several hours.

Despite being one of Africa's poorest nations, Mozambique has started an ambitious HIV/AIDS treatment plan which has already been treating patients with antiretroviral drugs for 300 days. A flood of donor dollars is underwriting the country's HIV/AIDS programme, with $330-million coming from the Clinton Foundation, $54-million coming from a Global Fund grant, and $55-million from the World Bank, mainly to fund prevention.

A school meals programme, whereby free meals are distributed to orphans and disadvantaged girls in primary schools, is now catering for a total of 122,000 children in six provinces of Mozambique. The programme, conducted by the World Food Programme (WFP), in coordination with the country's Education Ministry, was launched in Zambezia, in the centre of the country, in November last year, and now has been extended to Manica, Sofala, Tete, Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces.

The campaign for the 19 November polls to elect both mayors and representatives in 33 municipalities around the country began officially last week. Although other political parties are contesting the local elections, the race is really between FRELIMO - which has ruled Mozambique since independence - and the RENAMO Electoral Union (a coalition of 10 parties with the main opposition party, RENAMO).

The November 19 elections in Mozambique will take place in a context where current economic growth has brought little benefit to the majority of a population stricken by unemployment, poverty and the beginning of the transition from an asymptomatic HIV pandemic to one of full-blown AIDS, says a briefing from the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. "In addition, the impact of recent political crises, largely connected to widespread corruption and reprehensible behaviour by the main political parties, cannot be ignored as factors influencing the election outcome."

Two conferences that took place in Mozambique last week addressed issues surrounding the AIDS epidemic in Southern African nations. One conference examined the role of public-private partnerships in the fight against AIDS. The other conference considered ways of alleviating the effects of HIV on regional food production.

The Central Mozambique Field Director (CMFD) oversees HAI'S public health projects in Manica and Sofala Provinces in Central Mozambique, which includes the administration of multiple grants and 40+ staff in two field offices in Chimoio and Beira. Currently we have projects for child survival, malaria control, HIV voluntary counselling and testing, prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission, care for people with AIDS, and a pilot study of a syphilis rapid test.

After delays and confusion, Mozambicans finally get to go to the polls on 19 November to vote in municipal elections. But in a country where 40 percent of the population still survives on less than one US dollar a day, what do the elections mean to people who have to struggle so hard to make ends meet?

The IMF recently published an Implementation Evaluation Report (IER) on the Mozambican Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA). The report emphasises that even though, broadly generalized, aggregate statistics indicate progress, the poor are inadequately served. William Butt, of the Mozambican Christian Council (CCM) contrasts the IER's findings with those of the CCM in areas such as; Good Governance, Education, Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Infrastructure, and his broad conclusion is that since the PARPA is heavily influenced by the IMF's policy of free-market-inspired development, so far the results seem to indicate not even a "trickle down" outcome but a "trickle around" one.

A senior journalist with "Savana" newspaper, Fernando Manuel, was brutally assaulted by a youth on 15 October 2003. His assailant apparently felt offended by an article written by the journalist and published in the 10 October edition of "Savana". The article in question was a profile of a recently deceased woman. In the article, Manuel highlighted her extensive development work in the community and commented on the need to recognise her achievements.