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Former Prime Minister of Mozambique visits Maastricht University
3 May 2010
Ms Luisa Diogo, the former Prime Minister of Mozambique, arrived on 27 April in the Netherlands for a two-day visit to Maastricht University (UM). During her visit to UM, Ms Diogo was a guest speaker at the debate on gender inequality in developing countries organised by Maastricht Debates, gave a lecture on the contemporary political history of Mozambique at UM and met with the university’s rector, Prof. Gerard Mols.
After serving as Mozambique’s Minister of Finance for five years, Luisa Diogo was appointed Prime Minister in 2004, becoming the first woman ever to hold the post in her country. The aim of her visit to Maastricht University was to strengthen the ties between UM and Mozambique and share knowledge and experience. During her stay, Ms Diogo also visited the African Centre (Africa Studie Centrum) and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in Maastricht.
As keynote speaker at the debate “What … if women had more economic options?” organised by Maastricht Debates at the Dominican Selexys bookshop, Ms Diogo’s charisma, dedication to her country and active role in the empowerment of women didn’t go unnoticed. She talked about the achievements of Mozambique, emphasizing its economic growth in the last ten years (7% to 8%), but also stressed some of its current challenges, namely poverty, AIDS, illiteracy and gender inequality. When asked how she became prime minister, Ms Diogo replied: “Through hard work, by performing well, by leaving the managers and leaders without any other options.” She continued by saying that in a male dominated society when a woman has proven to be very competent she’s seen as different, but when a woman fails she’s seen as (just) a woman. “Women have to work ten times as hard in order to be twice as competent” – only then do they stand a chance of being chosen for high profile positions. Despite this, Ms Diogo urged women to “grab the power” when institutionally available.
Also keynote speaker at this event was Sylvia Borren, co-chairman of the World Connectors think tank and former director of Oxfam Novib. Ms Borren talked about gender inequality in developing countries but also emphasised that this is still an issue in Europe in general and also in Netherlands, where around 40% of women are victims of sexual harassment.
On Wednesday morning, Ms Diogo gave a lecture on contemporary political history of Mozambique at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS). She provided a powerful insight into her country’s recent political history and characterised her period as prime minister as the “phase of critical reforms” during which important judicial, criminal, economic, financial changes took place and progress was made in delivering good governance.
In the afternoon, Ms Diogo met with Prof. Gerard Mols to talk about the cooperation between Maastricht University and institutions of higher education in Mozambique. UM has been cooperating with Mozambican universities for over 10 years now. In 1999, Maastricht University, via the then Faculty of Medicine and Mundo, started a partnership with Universidade Católica de Mozambique (UCM) to implement Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in its medical faculty. The PBL approach was so well received at this faculty that Filipe Couto, rector of UCM, decided to implement it in all of UCM’s faculties. UM’s PBL approach has also reached Maputo’s Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) and apparently plans have been made to include PBL in UEM’s curricula. According to Ms Diogo, “it seems that everybody in Mozambique knows about Maastricht University.”
Two years ago, Filipe Couto, rector of Universidade Católica de Mozambique visited
Maastricht University with Aires Ali, former Minister of Education and now Prime Minister of Mozambique.
Click here for more information about cooperation between Maastricht University and Mozambican institutions.
Click here to visit the website of Maastricht Debates
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