Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

There is significant variation between provinces in terms of resource allocation and
expenditure (see Figure 3.30), and allocation of resources is not fully consistent
with the health status indicators pattern. Estimated expenditure per person in 2005,
for example, varied from approximately US$2 per person in Zambezia province to
approximately US$5 per person in Maputo City, while data from the 2002/03 IAF
suggests that 17.6 per cent of the population in Zambezia reported having been ill
in the previous week compared to a much lower 10.6 per cent in Maputo City (Van
den Broeck, 2005). 48 It should be stressed however that the amounts in Figure 3.30
are only very broadly indicative of differences in spending and are in no way meant
to capture all resources spent – expenditures by the General Common Fund, the
Common Fund for Medicines and some off-budget projects are not captured and
neither are expenditures on central-level administration in Maputo.
Figure 3.30: Indicative per capita provincial health expenditure, 2005
14
12
US$ per habitant
10
8
6
4
2
0
Niassa
Cabo
Delgado Namp.
Namp. Zamb. Tete Manica Sofala Beira Inhamb. Gaza
Central
Central
Hospital
Hospital
Maputo Maputo
Province City
Maputo
Central
Hospital
Allocated
Executed
Note: All allocation and expenditure figures include own receipts, recurrent budget, investment budget and provincial
common fund.
Source: Adapted by the MPD from Ministry of Health, 2006
Including the Nampula, Sofala and Maputo City Central Hospitals in the provincial
figures would produce even greater disparities. This is not common practice in
sectoral calculations of per capita expenditures because the Central Hospitals are
intended to be of benefit to the entire population in the region, not simply the
province in which they are located (Maputo Central Hospital also aims to provide
some specialist nation-wide services). Their inclusion is however justified in an
analysis focusing on the poorest members of society, who have lower mobility and
are often unlikely to seek formal medical attention at all, let alone journey to a hospital
in a different province. Were the Central Hospitals to be included in provincial per
capita calculations, inter-provincial disparities in health spending would be even higher,
as is illustrated in Figure 3.31.
47 The World Development Report of 1993 recommended a minimum package of US$12.00 per capita for low-income countries. Other estimates
are: US$9.24 standard under the “Better Health in Africa” (World Bank, 1994); and US$35 prescribed by WHO’s Commission on Macroeconomics
and Health (WHO, 2002) to meet basic health needs towards the year 2007. The figures for Sub-Saharan Africa are taken from World Bank (2005),
Table 2.14 – Health: expenditure, services and use.
48 Niassa’s per capita expenditures are very high due to the higher costs involved in providing basic services in remote rural areas.
CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS
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