22-28 October 2006: A delegation of eleven members of the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO visited Mozambique for one week, to learn more about UNESCO's work in the field. The program included a visit to Ilha Mozambique, to the Community Multimedia Centre in Namaacha and the primary school in Maguiaguana.

The eyes of the school children made a great impression on me," said Ms Ingegard Warnersson, Chair of the Swedish UNESCO Commission and former minister of Education in Sweden.  "The eyes were shining of hope for the future. They were so eager to learn, even with very basic conditions. I saw with my own eyes how important it is to put development efforts into the education sector," Ms Warnersson said. The Swedish delegation also visited a number of museums and galleries, such as the Ethnology Museum, the National Museum of Art, the Chissano Gallery and the Historical Museum. These are institutions supported by UNESCO Maputo, through a project for development of the cultural institutions of Mozambique launched in April 2006, sponsored by the Swedish government.

Swedish NATCOM delegation and UNESCO Maputo staff in front of UNESCO office in Maputo.

On Ilha Mozambique the delegation visited the Fort St. Sebastian, which is being  rehabilitated through another UNESCO project funded by Japan, Portugal and UCCLA. The delegation also showed great interest in studying the opportunities and challenges involved in bringing new communications technologies to the rural areas of Mozambique;

In Namacha  they got the change to visit a well functioning Community Multimedia Centre, which is a combination of community radio and telecentre, aiming at building synergies between the different communication tools. In a meeting with the UNESCO office in Maputo Ms. Warnersson expressed great appreciation of the visit, saying that the opportunity to see how UNESCO works in the field will be a great motivation in continuing their important support to the organization. The UNESCO Head of Office, Mr. Benoit Sossou emphasized the importance of the close collaboration between the UNESCO office  and the National Commission for UNESCO. "We are colleagues, not partners," said Mr. Sossou.

Head of UNESCO Maputo, Mr Benoit Sossou shaking hands with Ms Ingegeard Warnerssson, Chair of Swedish National Commission for UNESCO.