This chapter aims to resume the analysis begun in Chapter 5 of the 1999 National Human Development Report for Mozambique on the social and economic impact of HIV/AIDS.

For some assiduous users of the Mozambican NHDR, insisting once more on the question of HIV/AIDS may certainly seem repetitive and tiresome, since the matter was dealt with in detail in the 1999 edition. Some may even ask themselves whether the Report is dealing with HIV/AIDS merely because it is fashionable.

But the understanding of the authors of this report is that HIV/AIDS is not a question of fashion. Y ears ago it stopped being just a health problem and became a development problem. The epidemic touches on all spheres, be they in the economic, political, social or even cultural domains. Thus it would be difficult to declare as exhausted the analysis of the epidemic in all its dimensions and implications for Mozambique. What may vary is how the problem is approached.

The main innovation of this Report is that it is the first analysis of the impact of the epidemic on the education sector. Right from the start, it should be noted that this Chapter does not pretend to present finished recipes on how the education sector can deal with HIV/AIDS to minimise its impact, but merely to contribute with an initial analysis of the possible impact of the epidemic on the sector. The Chapter draws attention to several aspects regarded as pertinent and which, when taken into consideration, might indeed help to minimise the effects of the epidemic. It resorts, wherever possible, to examples from countries which have faced the effects of HIV/AIDS earlier than Mozambique, who possess substantial evidence on the devastating effects of the pandemic on human development.