English language version - Human Development Reports - United ...

Updating Human Development in MozambiqueIn disaggregated terms, the most dynamic indicatorshave normally been the GDP index, whichreflects recent economic gains; and the joint schoolattendance rate, which expresses the gradual, butsubstantial, increase in the number of places in thecountry’s educational network, particularly as from1995 (NHDR, 2001).It is estimated that about 3.8 million pupilsattended EP1 in 2006, which is an increase of about6.0% when compared with 2005. In the same period,the number of EP2 pupils grew by 9.5% comparedwith 2005 (PES, 2006). Thus the trend towardsstrong growth in this level of education, noted sincethe 1995 school year, and particularly as from 2000,is being maintained.Obviously all this represents a trend induced bythe increased supply in the education system. Toillustrate this perception, it is enough to note, by wayof example, the school coverage forecasts, namelythat the net EP1 attendance rate rose from 83.4% in2005 to 88.3% in 2006, and that the gross admissionrate increased by 1.2%, rising from 160.6% in 2005to 162.5% in 2006 (PES 2006).These results revive the hope that, although thereis still a long way to go, Mozambique is, in relativeterms, taking an important step in reducing the deprivationsof its population (UNDP, 2001).Graph 2.4 illustrates the growth in the literacyrate among adult women, compared with men, overthe period 1997 to 2006.Graph 2.4807060504030201001997WomenComparative evolutionof the literacy rate,1997-200620002003Men2006The GDI of MozambiqueThe Gender-adjusted Development Index (GDI) is acomposite index that measures average attainment inthe three basic dimensions captured in the HDI – along and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standardof living – adjusted to reflect the inequalitiesbetween men and women. That is, the GDI adjustsaverage attainment to reflect inequalities betweenmen and women in the three dimensions of humandevelopment.Like the HDI, the GDI is expressed as a figurebetween 0 and 1. When the GDI is equal to 1, itreflects maximum attainment in the basic capacitieswith perfect equality between men and women(though no country has ever achieved this figure).On the other hand, a GDI approaching zero reflects alarger gulf between the development attainments ofwomen and of men. The methodology used in calculatingthe GDI is shown in Technical Note III appendedto this report.The first finding on analysing the data in Table2.2 and Graph 2.5 is the existence of disparities inattainment between women and men, as the historicfigures for the GDI over the 2001-2006 period show.The figure for the GDI in 2006, still well below 0.5,shows the long journey that must be travelledtowards reducing the disparities in attainmentbetween the two sexes.Graph 2.6, in showing the comparative evolutionbetween the HDI and the GDI between 2001and 2006, confirms the trend to parallel evolutionbetween the two indicators of human development,which does at least suggest that the gap inthe levels of attainment between men and womenhas not widened (NHDR, 2001). Indeed, while theHDI recorded an average annual growth of 3.2%between 2001 and 2006, for the same period,there was an average annual growth of 3.5% in theGDI.The conclusion that may be drawn from thisresult is that, since the disparities between men andwomen are not increasing, the policies intended topromote the advancement of women, particularly asregards access to education, health and other socialservices, are making steps towards reducing the gapbetween the development attainments of the twosexes. Graph 2.7 shows the evolution of the gapbetween the human development attainments of menand women.9