Luisa Diogo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prime Minister of Mozambique
Luisa Dias Diogo

Incumbent
Assumed office 17 February 2004
President	Joaquim Chissano Armando Guebuza
Preceded by	Pascoal Mocumbi

Born	11 April 1958 (1958-04-11) (age 50)
Political party	FRELIMO
Religion	Roman Catholic^[1]

Luísa Dias Diogo (born April 11, 1958) has been prime minister of Mozambique since February 2004. She replaced Pascoal Mocumbi, who had been prime minister for the previous nine years. Before becoming prime minister she was minister of planning and finance, and she continued to hold that post until February 2005.^[2] She is the first woman prime minister of Mozambique. Luisa Diogo represents the party FRELIMO, which has ruled the country since independence in 1975.

Diogo studied economics at Maputo's Eduardo Mondlane University. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1983. She went on to obtain a master's degree in financial economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1992. In 1980, she began working in Mozambique's Finance Ministry. She became a department's head in 1986 and in 1989 became national budget director. Then she worked for the World Bank as program officer in Mozambique. In 1994 she joined the FRELIMO government as deputy finance minister.

In September 2005, she was the international guest speaker at the British Labour Party Conference.

As a female leader, Diogo has urged the African health ministers to offer reproductive and sexual health services free of charge thoughtout the continent. These services could reduce infant mortality by two thirds, reduce maternal mortality by three quarters, reverse the spread of AIDS, and promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. The target set by the UN is to achieve these goals by 2015. ^[3]

In August 2007, Luisa Diogo, who has made her mark as an anti-poverty and health advocate, ranked 89th on the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women List. ^[4] Diogo lately has focused on gender equality and women's empowerment through a recently launched "Network of Women Ministers and Parliamentarians" (MUNIPA). The MUNIPA network aims to strengthen advocacy and lobbying activities so that policies and legislation are adopted favourable to gender equity and women's empowerment. Promting equality between men and women is a central concern of the Mozambican government, which has been adopting instruments to promote women's empowerment at all levels [of government].^[5]