ment and serving as banker to the government. In this regard, the BM has striven to maintain a judicious monetary policy stance supported by close coordination with fiscal authorities, as well as a comprehensive framework for liquidity management that helps to maintain stability in the financial markets. In order to strengthen policy formulation, the BM has intensified its monitoring, analysing and forecasting of macroeconomic and monetary indicators, thanks in part to the introduction of quarterly reports on the GDP by the INE. 6.3 Socioeconomic Development • Policy dialogue on poverty between the state and non-state role-players in Mozambique. PARPA has introduced the Poverty Observatory (OP), which has turned out to be a useful platform for dialogue between the government and civil society. The OP brings together government representatives and representatives of CSOs, including employers’ associations and trade unions. It has a consultative character, but has proven to be a powerful instrument in broadening the discussion of policy options in the country. CSOs also engage the government in policy discussions by making concrete suggestions on how to deal with certain issues. Since the launch of the OP in 2003, it has held at least one plenary session per year at the national level. The outcome of the OP process is presented to Parliament and feeds into the development of the annual development plans. • Reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Mozambique. The country has made significant progress in improving the access of pregnant women and women living with HIV to antiretroviral therapy (ART). There has been a noticeable increase in the number of sites for the prevention of motherto-child transmission (PMTCT) in Mozambique, up from 222 at the end of 2006 to 386 by December 2007. Almost 800 health centres with antenatal care facilities offer PMTCT services. In 2006, the total estimated number of pregnancies in Mozambique was 760 000, while 269 084 (35 per cent) of these women received antenatal care at a health facility with PMTCT services. The proportion of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving ART pro phylaxis to the overall population of HIV-positive pregnant women in creased from 0.2 per cent in 2002, to 8.3 per cent in 2006 and 29.7 per cent in 2007. In addition, the number of HIV-positive women who receive ART for their own health has increased. There is still a large unmet demand for reproductive health services, however, and the country is urged to continue scaling up efforts to improve access to PMTCT and ART. 7. CONCLUSION clxxix. ozambique’s remarkable recovery since the end of the civil war in 1992 M should make its citizens proud of their accomplishments. Over the last two 39