Nominated by the Government under the proposal of the National Commission President.
Description
Date and Method of Creation
August 1980
Status
Governmental (1 Ministry)
Legislation Dates
The judicial text was accepted01/08/1980 and last revised 29/05/1990
Legislation
Established in August 1980 under the Ministry of Education and Culture as the Secretariat for International Cooperation, the National Commission was restructured and became an independant body in 1990. The new Constitution and structure of the National Commission was instituted by Presidential Decree in May 1990. Since then, the National Commission has benefited from an administrative and financial autonomy while covering all fields of UNESCO competence.
From 1992, the Government has proposed a revision of the National Commission status.
Documentation Centre
The National Commission has created a Documentation Centre which gathers 2000 titles, the majority of which being UNESCO's and other United Nations Organizations' publications, but also other National Commissions' bulletins, embassies and Ministries' reports.
The Centre welcomes more than 4000 visitors every year: university students, academics, journalists, politicians and parliamentarians.
The librarians, who are professional documentalists, are processing all the documents of the Centre: the Documentation Center is about to be fully computerized.
Structure of the Commission
The National Commission is a policy-setting and consultative forum. It is composed of the following organs:
- The General Assembly, which meets twice a year.
- The Executive Board, which is composed of Ministers responsible for Education, Science, Culture, Information, and Higher Education as well as Rectors. It meets four times a year in the intervals of the General Assembly's meetings to monitor activities and make reommendations to the National Commission. Its President can also call for an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Board.
The Executive Board is a restricted organ headed by the Chairperson of the National Commission, Ms. Graça Machel.
- The Technical Council.
- The Secretariat is the implementing organ under the authority of the Secretary-General, Dr. Januário Mutaquiha. It is composed of experts or specialists in the main fields of cooperation with UNESCO.
Members/Composition
The National Commission Members represent Governement Departments, Non-Governemental Organizations, professional associations, diverse national institutions involved in the sectors interesting UNESCO's competence, civil society representatives such as women, youth, sport associations, religious institutions, the media, entrepreneurial and environmental bodies in addition to individual experts.
All members of the National Commission meet twice a year to set priorities, policies and strategies for the National Commission, and to adopt the annual plan and report.
Interaction with UNESCO and National Commissions
Overview
The Mozambique National Commission is part of an Informal Consortium of 7 National Commissions where Portuguese is used as a language of communication (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sao Tome and Principe).
The Commission also collaborates with other African National Commissions and maintains a good relations with the UNESCO Field Offices such as Maputo (Mozambique), Dakar (Senegal) and Harare (Zimbabwe).
