The president of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), Graça Machel, declared on Wednesday that the Mozambican government has no strategies or clear objectives for placing women in prominent positions in the creation of policies and in the management of the economy.

According to the activist, who has also served as Minister of Education, women are more than "the face of poverty" in Mozambique.

"We've worked for decades to get to where we are, but we feel that in the area of the economy, in our work with communities, we've learned that there are no strategies as clear as there are in the political sphere. There are no strategies, no plans, no goals. There are no clear objectives around which the public sector, the private sector, academia, organizations and women themselves feel they have to achieve that objective, it should be sector by sector in the economy," said the activist, quoted by RFI.

For Graça Machel it is also "regrettable" that in the 21st century, economically, women are still the face of poverty in Mozambique.

"We're in the 21st century, we're talking about the digital economy. How are we going to get women into this economy? How are we going to transform this stigma, that the face of poverty is the face of a woman. And a woman is not what we've been made out to be, she's not just the face of poverty," she said.

In 2021, the United Nations estimated that the number of people in vulnerable situations in Mozambique exceeds 70% of the population. There are more than 22 million people in difficulty and of these 63% live below the poverty line.