Mozambique's National Statistics Institute on Friday presented an updated computerised data base on the country's demographic, economic and social statistics, known as ESDEM.
This is the third edition of ESDEM, and at a ceremony launching the CD-ROM containing the data base, the INE's chairperson, Joao Loureiro, said it was compiled from the information gathered in censuses, surveys and from other sources.
Such statistics, he said, provided a means of monitoring progress in obtaining the goals set, both internationally (such as the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals), and domestically (in the government's Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty - PARPA).
ESDEM has been developed in partnership with the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), and uses the "ChildInfo" software developed by UNICEF.
ESDEM uses the most up-to-date information available, including the 2002/03 Household Survey, and the 2003 Demographics and Health Survey.
Some key statistics deriving from the health survey were distributed at Friday's ceremony. Thus the national mortality rate among children under the age of five, put at 262.6 per 1,000 live births in the 1997 census, has fallen sharply, to 178 per 1,000 live births.
As in so many other areas, Maputo city proves the best place in the country to live - it has a child mortality rate of only 89 per 1,000 live births. The worst rate is in the northernmost province of Cabo Delgado, where 241 out of every 1,000 children die before their fifth birthday.
The statistics also prove that the largest single factor in determining whether a child will live or die is the educational level of its mother. 200 out of every thousand children born to mothers with no education die before the age of five: among children born to mothers with secondary education the figure falls to 87.
The Demographics and Health Survey showed that malnutrition remains shockingly high among the nation's children. 41 per cent of all children under five years old are suffering from chronic malnutrition. The geographical and social distribution of child malnutrition mirrors that of child deaths. thus 56 per cent of under-fives in Cabo Delgado, but only 21 per cent in Maputo city, are suffering from chromic malnutrition.
47 per cent of the under-fives born to mothers with no education are chronically malnourished, but the figure is 15 per cent among children born to mothers with secondary education.
One key health gain in the immediate post-independence period has been maintained right up to the present: the country has a remarkable record in vaccinating its children against the main killer diseases.
The survey found that 63 per cent of children aged between 12 and 23 months had been fully vaccinated. The figure reaches 98 per cent among the children of women who have secondary education, but falls to 49 per cent among the children of uneducated women.
In Maputo city 91 per cent of the children were found to be vaccinated - a figure that would put many European and American cities to shame. The figure is even better in Maputo province, where it rises to 93 per cent. In all provinces except two - Niassa in the north, and Zambezia in the centre - over 50 per cent of children were found to have been vaccinated.
Loureiro also used the occasion to publicly announce the results from the Household Survey. These came as nothing new to anyone with access to a computer, since the INE put them on its website months ago. Loureiro promised that all the ESDEM information would also soon be available on the website.
The main deduction from the household survey is that the number of Mozambicans living below the poverty line has fallen from about 69 per cent in 1997 to 54 per cent in 2003.
Fonte: AIM
