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

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This analysis of childhood poverty provides a comprehensive review of the socioeconomic situation of the ten million children in Mozambique and presents an overview of the public policy and service delivery environment for children. The report is intended to serve as an up-to-date and comprehensive reference for all stakeholders involved in the fight against childhood poverty, highlighting the many varied and interrelated challenges faced both by Mozambican children and by stakeholders seeking to address those challenges. This in turn is intended to support the development and implementation of policies which help to reduce childhood poverty and strategies to reach the most vulnerable and marginalised children. This exercise is particularly important, as poverty during childhood can undermine an individual’s development for life. The conceptual framework Chapter One outlines the conceptual framework of the report, which is informed by a human rights based approach to childhood poverty. It acknowledges that children experience poverty differently from adults, that the impact of poverty in childhood can be lifelong and inter-generational and that children living in poverty face deprivations of many of their rights: to survive, develop, participate, and be protected. The key international legal instrument on children’s rights is the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), to which Mozambique is a signatory. The CRC affirms children’s fundamental rights – such as the right to education – and childhood poverty can therefore be defined as the deprivation of these basic rights. In order to operationalise this rights-based approach to childhood poverty, the report adopts a deprivationsbased approach which uses a series of indicators – known as the ‘Bristol Indicators’ – to measure children’s access to seven rights (nutrition, water, sanitation, healthcare, shelter, education and information). This is presented in conjunction with the standard consumption-based measure of poverty, and the two are regarded as complementary to one another. The human rights based approach implies the inclusion of two key steps in the analysis: a causality analysis, looking beyond the immediate causes of non-realisation of child rights to identify the underlying causes of the problem; and a capacity gap analysis, exploring the capacity of all those individuals or institutions responsible for respecting, protecting and fulfilling children’s rights. The deprivations-based approach provides a basis for causality analysis by establishing a clear link between childhood poverty and the provision of basic public services. In addition, through highlighting areas with widespread deprivations in basic services, the deprivations-based approach helps to identify key capacity gaps. In such cases, there is a need to examine the capacities of all those institutions and individuals responsible for respecting, protecting and fulfilling child rights. The national development context By the signing of the peace accords in 1992, after sixteen years of armed struggle, Mozambique was one of the poorest countries in the world. As a result, even though subsequent social and economic development has been rapid and sustained, many children’s rights remain unrealised at present. However, this does not mean that a rights based approach cannot be applied in Mozambique. In such contexts, the progressive realisation of children’s rights is of fundamental importance – i.e. achieving sustained improvements in child development outcomes to the maximum of the available resources. As the analysis shows, the development trend has CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS 17
een strongly positive in recent years, although the incredibly low base from which progress began means that there is still a tremendously long way to go. Chapter Two focuses on three crucial and inter-related areas for child development outcomes (economic growth and stability, fiscal trends and poverty reduction) and asks to what extent children have benefited from the impressive poverty reduction trend in Mozambique. Through an assessment of childhood poverty, this Chapter demonstrates that childhood poverty is a pervasive and deep rooted problem: using the consumption-based measure of poverty, 58 per cent of children were living in poverty in 2003. The deprivations-based measure of poverty further indicates acute provincial disparities in the levels of childhood poverty. 75 per cent of children in Zambezia province were living in absolute poverty (i.e. with two or more severe deprivations) in 2003 as compared with 3 per cent in Maputo City, where public services are much more accessible. Evidence that poverty and inequality are widespread throughout the country is also presented: the poor often live alongside the non-poor and most inequality is accounted for by differences within districts. This makes the design of programmes to target the most vulnerable children effectively particularly challenging. The institutional context within which child development outcomes are pursued is also examined, with a particular focus on the second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PARPA II). The Chapter explores key reforms within the Government such as the decentralisation process, reform of public sector planning and budgeting, public financial management (PFM) reform, and changes in the practices of donors through increasing alignment, harmonisation and the use of different aid modalities. A key observation is that the current climate is ‘policy rich yet implementation poor’. It is therefore important that efforts are made to remove constraints to improved service delivery, which often relate to lack of institutional capacity as much as lack of financing. The Chapter also highlights the fundamental importance of the move away from ad hoc bilateral arrangements towards greater harmonisation and alignment of aid, whilst simultaneously strengthening Government capacity. It also cautions that care should be taken to ensure that this important transition does not have a detrimental impact on the development of the current generation of children. Thus, where scaling-up of aid results in large additional inflows of aid, these funds should be used to complement long-term capacity strengthening efforts with short and medium term programmes able to deliver a “step-change” in child development outcomes, such as malaria and immunisation programmes. The situation in relation to child survival The current situation in the area of child survival is reviewed in Chapter Three. There have been many positive developments in recent years, including a reduction in the maternal mortality ratio and the under-five mortality rate, putting the country on track to reach its PARPA II targets in this area, as well as two of the Millennium Development Goals. Many challenges remain, however, and the analysis indicates that 17 per cent of children under five years of age experienced severe health deprivation and 20 per cent of children under five years of age experienced severe nutrition deprivation in 2003. About one in six children die before reaching their fifth birthday. Malaria is the primary cause of mortality among children. In particular, the Chapter highlights a central paradox in the Mozambican development trend: despite rapid reductions in both consumption and non-consumption poverty measures between 1997 and 2003, the situation in several areas relating to child survival and healthy development – in particular key anthropometric indicators – saw no significant improvement over the same period. There was no substantive change 18 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS
Page 1: CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE A S
Page 5 and 6: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report on the
Page 7 and 8: CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………
Page 9 and 10: 4. Access to schooling and attendan
Page 11 and 12: TABLES AND FIGURES List of tables T
Page 13 and 14: Figure 4.20: Estimated spending on
Page 15 and 16: GBS GDP GER GNI GoM HAART HDI HIPC
Page 17: MAP OF MOZAMBIQUE Zumbu Magoe M
Page 21 and 22: Child protection concerns Chapter F
Page 23 and 24: vaccination or malaria campaigns, w
Page 25 and 26: 1. Objective of the Situation Analy
Page 27 and 28: Box 1.1: Human rights conventions r
Page 29 and 30: of poverty, defined as: “Impossib
Page 31 and 32: Table 1.1: Deprivation-based indica
Page 33 and 34: The Ministries of Planning and Deve
Page 35 and 36: 34 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE:
Page 37 and 38: 1. Introduction This chapter focuse
Page 39 and 40: Table 2.1: Progress towards the MDG
Page 41 and 42: 3. Economic growth and macroeconomi
Page 43 and 44: Evidence as to what extent these
Page 45 and 46: The percentage of the population li
Page 47 and 48: Arndt et al. (2005) show that, on a
Page 49 and 50: B. Assessing childhood poverty In a
Page 51 and 52: Figure 2.9: Households living below
Page 53 and 54: severe deprivation. In the poorest
Page 55 and 56: The second PARPA for the period 200
Page 57 and 58: Box 2.3: Civil society engagement i
Page 59 and 60: A key cause of these weaknesses is
Page 61 and 62: One possible way forward in tacklin
Page 63 and 64: Box 2.4: Corruption and its impact
Page 65 and 66: (vi) Analysis of monitoring and rev
Page 67 and 68: There are two principal drivers beh
Page 69 and 70:
This has troubling implications for
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70 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE:
Page 73 and 74:
1. Introduction Every child has the
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B. Severe nutrition deprivation amo
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Zambezia and Tete provinces. Severe
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If this downward trend continues, M
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Figure 3.5: Percentage of women rec
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Mozambique has achieved a continual
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The second reason is that deaths oc
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5. Childhood illnesses A major publ
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Figure 3.9: Malaria prevention: use
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The 2005 Nutrition Survey conducted
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Box 3.3: Combating measles and poli
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(ii) Stunting prevalence (chronic m
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Alarmingly high levels of stunting
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Figure 3.16: Underweight prevalence
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There are 86 known salt producers r
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Among children, there were no varia
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Box 3.5: Infant feeding in the cont
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highly in PARPA II, which sets a ta
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Table 3.3: Overview of PMTCT progra
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The reduction of mother-to-child tr
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It is only recently that paediatric
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100 Figure 3.22: Use of safe water
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A. Inequitable access to and fundin
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The 2004/2005 IFTRAB survey also su
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provincial level reported that only
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Table 3.4: Ministry of Health budge
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Figure 3.29: Total sector resources
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Figure 3.31: Indicative per capita
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The agenda for expanding water supp
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and was revised in 2005. The on-bud
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supported by key sector stakeholder
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1. Introduction Education is a fund
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B. Severe information deprivation a
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Secondary education consists of fiv
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Table 4.3: Gross and net enrolment
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Table 4.4: Gross enrolment ratio, a
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57 per cent, compared with a NER of
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DHS data show that the wealth level
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Figure 4.11: Distribution of 11-yea
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Lack of literacy is directly correl
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In addition, there is a serious gap
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The IAF showed that in 2002/3 expen
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Absenteeism is also common among te
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to the need for two or even three s
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The system is faced with a number o
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• The school represents or is a l
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(iv) Impact of natural disasters In
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The associated large off-budget res
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The Ministry of Education and Cultu
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sense of providing education for ev
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172 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE
Page 175 and 176:
I. Introduction All children have t
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involving children. 45 per cent of
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Box 5.1: Street children in Maputo:
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Girls at greatest risk of abuse wer
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The aspirations expressed by the yo
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Against this background, Caia and C
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“Trafficking in women and childre
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Mozambique, girls aged 15-19 in the
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The survey indicates that 32 per ce
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Figure 5.5: School attendance among
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• Labour law does not define the
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- To use child labour (children age
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from their parents. Thus, the law d
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C. Birth registration - guaranteein
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such as hospitals and schools for b
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Sofala province also accounts for t
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Evidence points to worrying increas
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Figure 5.9: Primary school attendan
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activities to strengthen the capaci
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The responsibility for implementing
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214 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE
Page 217 and 218:
Conclusions Mozambique is one of Af
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planning in Mozambique, and has the
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7- Implementing social communicatio
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Form of Severe Deprivation Food Wat
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ANNEX II Calendar of the planning,
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ANNEX IV State Budget recurrent and
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REFERENCES AND MATERIALS CONSULTED
Page 231 and 232:
Deaton, A., Ruiz-Castilo, J., and T
Page 233 and 234:
Klasen, S. and Woltermann, S., ‘T
Page 235 and 236:
Government of Mozambique, ‘Progra
Page 237 and 238:
World Bank (WB), ‘World Developme
Page 239 and 240:
World Bank (WB), ‘Mozambique Publ
Page 241 and 242:
Ministry of Women and Co-ordination
Page 243:
United Nations Children’s Fund (U
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Child Poverty in Mozambique. A Situation and Trend ... - Unicef

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