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

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

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<strong>Mozambique</strong> is Africa’s s<strong>in</strong>gle biggest recipient of <strong>in</strong>ternational development<br />

assistance, receiv<strong>in</strong>g more than other post-conflict countries such as Ug<strong>and</strong>a<br />

<strong>and</strong> Ethiopia (IMF, 2005), external aid flows have a substantial bear<strong>in</strong>g on child<br />

development outcomes. The way this assistance is delivered is now chang<strong>in</strong>g, with a<br />

clear <strong>and</strong> concerted move towards <strong>in</strong>creased harmonisation <strong>and</strong> alignment of donor<br />

activity centred around the PARPA process (See Box 2.5) together with an <strong>in</strong>terrelated<br />

move towards more flexible aid modalities such as sector Common Funds <strong>and</strong><br />

Government-wide General Budget Support (GBS). Underst<strong>and</strong><strong>in</strong>g these changes is<br />

therefore central to child development because it is <strong>in</strong>timately l<strong>in</strong>ked with not just<br />

how much will be spent on children but also how effective <strong>and</strong> susta<strong>in</strong>able those<br />

<strong>in</strong>terventions are likely to be <strong>and</strong> therefore how successful the Government <strong>and</strong> its<br />

partners will be <strong>in</strong> susta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the broadly positive child development trends observed<br />

s<strong>in</strong>ce 1992.<br />

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness <strong>in</strong> 2005 formalised many of the changes<br />

<strong>in</strong> an agreement signed by all <strong>Mozambique</strong>’s major bilateral <strong>and</strong> multilateral donors<br />

that <strong>in</strong>cluded quantitative time-bound targets (High Level Forum, 2005). These targets<br />

<strong>in</strong>clude commitments to channel an <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g proportion of funds through national<br />

budgets, use national public f<strong>in</strong>ance management (PFM) systems, provide capacity<br />

development support <strong>in</strong> a more coord<strong>in</strong>ated manner, <strong>in</strong>crease the predictability of aid<br />

flows <strong>and</strong> reduce the use of parallel project implementation units (High Level Forum,<br />

2005a). The move towards harmonisation, alignment <strong>and</strong> more flexible aid modalities<br />

has been led <strong>in</strong> <strong>Mozambique</strong> by the Programme Aid Partners (PAPs), a group of 18<br />

bilateral <strong>and</strong> multilateral donors provid<strong>in</strong>g GBS to the State Budget. Flexible modalities<br />

such as GBS <strong>and</strong> common funds now comprise around 40 per cent of gross aid<br />

commitments (Table 2.7). Moreover, PARPA II is clearly <strong>in</strong> favour of this move, <strong>and</strong><br />

GBS <strong>in</strong> particular, stat<strong>in</strong>g that: “although the ideal balance between aid modalities will<br />

probably conta<strong>in</strong> a mixture of them, the Government wishes that the proportion of<br />

funds channelled through the Public Treasury Accounts, pr<strong>in</strong>cipally through General<br />

Budget Support… be <strong>in</strong>creased” (GoM, 2006, p. 147).<br />

Box 2.5: Harmonisation <strong>and</strong> alignment<br />

“Harmonisation” (also known as coord<strong>in</strong>ation) refers to horizontal coord<strong>in</strong>ation<br />

among donors, compris<strong>in</strong>g:<br />

- The development of common agreements for plann<strong>in</strong>g, manag<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> deliver<strong>in</strong>g<br />

aid. This <strong>in</strong>cludes <strong>in</strong>creased use of jo<strong>in</strong>t reviews, collaboration <strong>and</strong> jo<strong>in</strong>t<br />

strategies, jo<strong>in</strong>t operations <strong>and</strong> jo<strong>in</strong>t f<strong>in</strong>anc<strong>in</strong>g arrangements.<br />

- The gradual simplification of procedures <strong>and</strong> specific requirements <strong>in</strong> order<br />

to reduce their burden on partner Governments. This <strong>in</strong>cludes streaml<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />

conditionality, reduc<strong>in</strong>g the number of field missions, reduc<strong>in</strong>g donor report<strong>in</strong>g<br />

requirements, harmonis<strong>in</strong>g f<strong>in</strong>ancial management <strong>and</strong> procurement procedures<br />

<strong>and</strong> delegated cooperation.<br />

- The shar<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>in</strong>formation to promote transparency <strong>and</strong> improved coord<strong>in</strong>ation.<br />

“Alignment” refers to convergence between Government <strong>and</strong> donor priorities<br />

through:<br />

- Donor actions such as bas<strong>in</strong>g country strategies on partners’ national<br />

development strategies <strong>and</strong> results frameworks.<br />

- Partner country actions, such as bas<strong>in</strong>g national development strategies on<br />

sound macroeconomic <strong>and</strong> poverty diagnoses <strong>and</strong> translat<strong>in</strong>g these national<br />

strategies <strong>in</strong>to operational, results-oriented frameworks.<br />

Source: Balogun (2005)<br />

CHILDHOOD POVERTY IN MOZAMBIQUE: A SITUATION AND TRENDS ANALYSIS<br />

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