YouthMobile transforming education in Mozambique

Young girls and boys will create mobile apps by leveraging technology and to address local challenges in Mozambique.

Mozambique is joining a growing number of countries that engage in the UNESCO YouthMobile Initiative in training young people to program and use mobile phones as a resource to solve local problems. More than 200 students in Mozambique will benefit from the initiative that aims at developing 20 prototype mobile applications.

The one-year project was launched at the Science and Technology Park of Maluana, Maputo Province in Mozambique on 28 September 2018.  The launch was officiated by His Excellency, Deputy Minister of Education and Human Development, Professor Armindo Ngunga. At the occasion, Dr. Maria Helena Monteiro, the National Director of Science and Technology highlighted that the YouthMobile Project will provide a stable basis for scientific and technological development and encourage entrepreneurship among young beneficiaries. The ceremony was attended the UNESCO Representative in Mozambique, the National Director of Science and Technology, the Chairman of the Board of Directors  of the National Science and Technology Parks Company (ENPCT) and more than 80 students from the Manhiça and Marracuene districts. During the ceremony, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between UNESCO and the Technology Parks Company (ENPCT), which will allow for more joint projects.

YouthMobile is a UNESCO Initiative assisting Member States to translate the concept of knowledge societies into their national context.  UNESCO, through its Information for All Programme (IFAP), mainstreams the needs of young people to have access to information and works towards the upscaling of initiatives that empower young people to be fully part of knowledge societies.  The initiative is implemented within the framework of the UNESCO-Korean-Funds-in-Trust project that aims to foster human and social development in Mozambique, Rwanda and Zimbabwe, through the use of information and communication technology (ICT), and, in particular, mobile learning.