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

Conclusions
Mozambique is one of Africa’s success stories in terms of post-war reconstruction,
national reconciliation and economic recovery and growth. Since the signing of the
peace agreement in 1992, the country has experienced a relatively smooth transition
to political stability and democracy, established macro-economic stability, enjoyed
sustained real growth and a significant reduction in poverty on both consumptionbased
and deprivations-based measures. The Government has engaged in a process
of public sector, legal and financial management reform and an ongoing programme
of decentralisation, which have progressively contributed to enhancing accountability
and stimulating participation at the local level.
At the same time, significant progress has been made in developing an enabling
national policy and legislative framework to prioritise child development concerns,
with the development of national and sectoral legal and policy instruments that are in
line with the Government’s commitments under international human rights treaties. In
addition, notable improvements have been witnessed against key indicators of child
development. The country has seen significant reductions in the child mortality rate
and the maternal mortality ratio. A rapid increase in primary school enrolment means
that more children are enrolled in school than ever before.
Despite this progress, the sheer depth of poverty from which Mozambique is
emerging means that many children are still living in poverty. Using the consumptionbased
measure, an estimated 58 per cent of children were living in poverty in 2003.
Using the deprivations-based measure, 49 per cent of Mozambican children were
living in absolute poverty, defined as those deprived of two or more basic rights. In
addition, it is evident that the development gains and poverty reduction of recent
years have benefited some children more than others: children from rural areas, for
example, are consistently worse off than their peers in urban areas. The proportion
of children living in absolute poverty in rural areas stood at 63 per cent in 2003,
compared with 20 per cent for urban areas (using the deprivations-based measure).
Some groups of children are particularly marginalised, including orphaned and
vulnerable children (OVC) and children living in female-headed households, which are
increasingly taking on the burden of caring for OVC. These children are often beyond
the reach of development programmes: the evidence shows, for example, that
orphaned children, and particularly maternal orphans, are less likely to be attending
school and more likely to be chronically malnourished than other children.
In contrast with the strong positive trends in growth and poverty reduction, there
are several key areas of child development in which little improvement has been
witnessed in recent years, such as the nutritional status of children, access to water
and sanitation, the prevention and treatment of malaria and the quality of education,
all of which threaten attainment of PARPA II targets and the Millennium Development
Goals. While the causes of childhood poverty are many and varied, the analysis shows
that progress in relation to the reduction of childhood poverty is being seriously
undermined across all sectors by the AIDS pandemic and the resulting weakened
capacity of duty bearers to care for and protect children. In other areas, the limited
availability of data precludes comprehensive analysis of the situation of children, such
as the causes of child mortality and the status of a range of child protection concerns.
The evidence suggests that concerted efforts are required from all those responsible
for the reduction of childhood poverty – including Government, civil society and
international development partners – in order both to reduce the incidence of
childhood poverty and mitigate its impact, and also to ensure that specific strategies
are in place to reach the most marginalised and excluded children. Tackling childhood
216 CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS