Sweden funds safe abortion in Mozambique provinces

NAMPULA, Mozambique

The Swedish Embassy in Maputo announced on Monday that it is providing additional funds of slightly more than a million US dollars to a project on expanding access by women and girls to safe abortion and to contraceptive care in the Mozambican provinces of Nampula and Zambezia.

The project was launched in 2016 with overall funding of over five million dollars.

A press release from the embassy says the additional million dollars is intended to extend the projetc, and to rise to the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The embassy is working in partnership with the Mozambican branch of the international health rights NGO, Ipas.

The Embassy release said the funding “is intended to guarantee the implementation of activities inherent to sexual and reproductive health and rights as a fundamental part of human rights”.

The focus, it adds, is on creating a favourable environment for implementing Mozambican abortion legislation “through actions of advocacy and publicising the law that de-penalised safe abortion”.

The project intends to strengthen 20 health units in Nampula and 20 in Zambezia so that they can offer safe abortion services and high quality post-abortion care.

The release added that sexual health and reproductive rights “are among the pillars of Swedish cooperation policy for the development of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy.

Cited in the release, Swedish Ambassador Mette Sunnergren said “the right to decide and exercise control over one’s own body, sexuality and reproduction is fundamental for all people”.

“The reduction of unwanted pregnancies and of maternal mortality depends on a functioning health system with comprehensive services, including access to contraceptives and safe abortion”, she added.

Interesting courtesy meeting between Minister Maleiane and Ambassador Sunnergren and an opportunity to reaffirm the bilateral relations between Mozambique and Sweden.