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

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The OVC Situation Analysis conducted in 2005 found that 0.2 per cent of all OVC households surveyed were headed by a child under the age of 18, with the figure slightly higher for orphan households (0.3 per cent) compared to vulnerable children households (0.2 per cent). In addition, some orphans who did not live in child-headed households were being cared for by other children. Indeed, child caregivers of orphans were ten times as common (3 per cent) as orphan child-headed households (0.3 per cent), meaning that orphaned children outside of child-headed households were being cared for by another child, rather than an adult. In 2005, a study was conducted in Sofala province to assess the conditions of children living in child headed households, in respect to access to education and healthcare, housing conditions and problems of abuse or stigma faced by the children. Interviews were conducted with the heads of child-headed households, defined as households headed by children under age 18 who were either: 1) living on their own with no adult support, 2) the oldest of a household having no adults living in the home, or 3) serving as the main provider of the material necessities of the household even when adults were present in the home (Cochran and Roby 2005). The study found that: • Presence of adults. 80 per cent of the child headed households did not live with any adults. The reasons given for the absence of adults from households were: the death of both parents (79 per cent), abandonment by both parents although living (12 per cent) and the death of father and abandonment by mother (9 per cent). Twenty per cent of the children lived with adults and were required to act as the main provider due to the fact that they lived with other family members who were too sick or handicapped to care for the children. These adults were parents (7 per cent), grandparents (9 per cent), an adult sibling (2 per cent), or an aunt/uncle (2 per cent). • Age and sex of child heads. 47 per cent of the child heads were aged 17, 25 per cent were 16 and 28 per cent were 8-15, while there were two 12 year-olds and one 8 year-old. Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) of the child heads were males. • Siblings. 34 per cent of the child heads lived with and cared for one or two siblings, while nearly 40 per cent cared for three to four siblings. These siblings ranged from 2-16 years of age. The challenges typically facing orphaned and vulnerable children are well documented, including: • Limited access to basic services (such as health, education, food, legal, financial and psychosocial services); • Very limited choices of livelihood strategies and means of generating income; • Reliance on negative coping strategies, such as early marriage, commercial sexual exploitation of children or harmful forms of child labour; • A heavy responsibility for children, especially those who are heads of households, for the survival and well-being of other members of the household. In addition to these challenges, children orphaned as a result of AIDS are often forced to live with the social stigma and discrimination that accompanies HIV/AIDS and potentially face exclusion from their communities or the extended family unit. As noted in Chapter II, the level of discriminatory attitude among the population towards people living with HIV or AIDS is very high. CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS 205
Evidence points to worrying increases in vulnerability among maternal orphans. The vulnerability assessment undertaken in 2003 in drought affected areas indicated that maternal orphans were over twice as likely to be severely stunted as the general child population (36 per cent versus 15 per cent) (Martel 2003, see also Chapter II). The participants in the 2005 Sofala study were asked to identify the main challenges faced in their day-to-day lives: • Obtaining food. 72 per cent of the participants identified obtaining food as a major challenge. In order to obtain food, the children used a variety of methods, such as purchasing food with money, working in exchange for food, asking friends, family and neighbours for additional food or a combination of several of the above. The children spent up to 60 hours each week in trying to obtain food. • Lack of money. 78 per cent of the participants identified lack of money as a challenge. 91 per cent of the children reported that the available money was used to buy food, clothing, and domestic items and to pay rent. 51 per cent of the children obtained money by working: some consistently (in bars or shops, for example); some sporadically. 10 per cent of the children worked more than 60 hours a week. • Education. Over half (51 per cent) of the children did not attend school, mainly due to the opportunity costs of schooling (i.e. the cost of spending time in school that reduces opportunities to use the time for other purposes, such as getting food or earning money). • Housing. 16 per cent of the children identified lack of safe and adequate housing as a problem. Some of the children had no housing at all and slept outside; others had to pay rent of around $17 per month for 3x5 metre mud shacks. • Medical care. Obtaining medical care was another problem. 28 per cent of the children reported that they did not seek help when they became sick. • Physical or sexual abuse. 8 per cent of the children reported that they had been hurt physically by adults, 90 per cent had not (2 per cent did not respond). 9 per cent of the children reported that there was someone in their lives who currently abused them sexually, while 91 per cent reported that no one was abusing them. • Community attitudes. The children were asked about how they perceived attitudes held towards them by adults and children in the community. Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) reported that adults had shown some form of positive or empathetic responses. 63 per cent reported that other children had shown a positive response, although 8 per cent reported that other children had hurt or mocked them. Children heading households are more likely than other children to work in exploitative situations, to be stigmatised, to be at risk of being trafficked, to be subjected to violence, abuse and neglect or to be forced to make a living on the streets (MMAS 2004a). There are also specific legal challenges for child-headed households emanating from the ‘legal incapacity’ of the household head to protect the rights of children in the household in, for example, property inheritance claims by relatives. Under customary law, judgements are more likely to yield land to adult relatives of the deceased, rather than to the deceased’s children (Sloth-Nielson and Galinetti 2004). It is becoming clear that the combination of poverty and the sharp increase in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is eroding traditional coping mechanisms, contributing to a general increase in vulnerability and exacerbating food insecurity. Research has 206 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS
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CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE A S
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report on the
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CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………
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4. Access to schooling and attendan
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TABLES AND FIGURES List of tables T
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Figure 4.20: Estimated spending on
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GBS GDP GER GNI GoM HAART HDI HIPC
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MAP OF MOZAMBIQUE Zumbu Magoe M
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een strongly positive in recent yea
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Child protection concerns Chapter F
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vaccination or malaria campaigns, w
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1. Objective of the Situation Analy
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Box 1.1: Human rights conventions r
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of poverty, defined as: “Impossib
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Table 1.1: Deprivation-based indica
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The Ministries of Planning and Deve
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34 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE:
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1. Introduction This chapter focuse
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Table 2.1: Progress towards the MDG
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3. Economic growth and macroeconomi
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Evidence as to what extent these
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The percentage of the population li
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Arndt et al. (2005) show that, on a
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B. Assessing childhood poverty In a
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Figure 2.9: Households living below
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severe deprivation. In the poorest
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The second PARPA for the period 200
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Box 2.3: Civil society engagement i
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A key cause of these weaknesses is
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One possible way forward in tacklin
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Box 2.4: Corruption and its impact
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(vi) Analysis of monitoring and rev
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There are two principal drivers beh
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This has troubling implications for
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70 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE:
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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
Page 155 and 156: The IAF showed that in 2002/3 expen
Page 157 and 158: Absenteeism is also common among te
Page 159 and 160: to the need for two or even three s
Page 161 and 162: The system is faced with a number o
Page 163 and 164: • The school represents or is a l
Page 165 and 166: (iv) Impact of natural disasters In
Page 167 and 168: The associated large off-budget res
Page 169 and 170: The Ministry of Education and Cultu
Page 171 and 172: sense of providing education for ev
Page 173 and 174: 172 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE
Page 175 and 176: I. Introduction All children have t
Page 177 and 178: involving children. 45 per cent of
Page 179 and 180: Box 5.1: Street children in Maputo:
Page 181 and 182: Girls at greatest risk of abuse wer
Page 183 and 184: The aspirations expressed by the yo
Page 185 and 186: Against this background, Caia and C
Page 187 and 188: “Trafficking in women and childre
Page 189 and 190: Mozambique, girls aged 15-19 in the
Page 191 and 192: The survey indicates that 32 per ce
Page 193 and 194: Figure 5.5: School attendance among
Page 195 and 196: • Labour law does not define the
Page 197 and 198: - To use child labour (children age
Page 199 and 200: from their parents. Thus, the law d
Page 201 and 202: C. Birth registration - guaranteein
Page 203 and 204: such as hospitals and schools for b
Page 205: Sofala province also accounts for t
Page 209 and 210: Figure 5.9: Primary school attendan
Page 211 and 212: activities to strengthen the capaci
Page 213 and 214: The responsibility for implementing
Page 215 and 216: 214 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE
Page 217 and 218: Conclusions Mozambique is one of Af
Page 219 and 220: planning in Mozambique, and has the
Page 221 and 222: 7- Implementing social communicatio
Page 223 and 224: Form of Severe Deprivation Food Wat
Page 225 and 226: ANNEX II Calendar of the planning,
Page 227 and 228: ANNEX IV State Budget recurrent and
Page 229 and 230: 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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