Maputo, 9 July 2008 - The Government of Mozambique is committed to and started the process to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets through its poverty reduction strategies and programmes. On the challenge of HIV&AIDS (MDG6) it is signatory to the UNGASS and has committed itself to the goals of universal access to prevention, treatment and impact mitigation. In this regard with UN support a lot has been done to mainstream HIV&AIDS in national and sector development frameworks.
In this context, on 30 June 2008 in Maputo, the Training on the Economics of HIV&AIDS was launched at the Economics Faculty, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM). This was in response to the interest showed by the UEM in training lecturers and students in areas such as macroeconomics and HIV&AIDS.
The first phase of the training will take place in two weeks from 30 June to July 11, 2008 and it is intended to put HIV&AIDS in the broader context of the socio-economic situation in Mozambique with the aim of making it possible to meeting the Government’s short, medium and long-term development challenges which are adversely affected by the scourage of HIV&AIDS.
The training is a part of UNDP Mozambique’s Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) for 2007 – 2009 which aims to institutionalize HIV&AIDS, Gender, Micro-Finance and other important subjects in training and research at UEM. Discussions on the issue started a year ago and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative and the Rector of UEM.
Among other issues, the participants to this training are discussing HIV&AIDS as a public policy issue; “introduction on epidemiology and demography, microeconomics and HIV&AIDS, macroeconomics and HIV&AIDS, poverty reduction strategies and development planning.”
The course is attended by lecturers from different academic institutions and Economics Faculty last year students who will be prepared to transmit this information to the future graduates of institutions of higher education.
The training is organized and managed by UNDP Mozambique in collaboration with UEM with technical support of UNDP Regional Service Center based in Johannesburg which provide the instructors. The second phase is planned to be held in November 2008.
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