About Mozambique
Since signing the 1992 peace accord, Mozambique has become one of Africa's most successful stories of post war reconstruction and economic recovery (UN Report on the Millennium Development Goals, 2005).
Around 18.5 million people live in Mozambique, of whom 54% still live under the national poverty line (National Household Income Survey, Mozambique National Institute of Statistics -INE, 2003).
The average annual income (GNI) per person is US$250, or about £140 (World Development Indicators 2005). That's half the average weekly income in the UK. - Average annual GDP has increased by over 8% pa since the late 1990s (Ministry of Planning and Dev, 2004).
Mozambique held its 3rd democratic elections in December 2004 and FRELIMO, in power since 1994, won a substantial majority. The elections were regarded as 'free and fair'. But only 36% of those eligible voted.
The primary school enrolment rate is relatively high at over 80%. However, only a third of those enrolled will go on to complete their primary education (Mozambique's Poverty Reduction Strategy 2006)
Average life expectancy at birth is 46 (INE, 2003). In the UK it is 79.
More than 1 child in 6 dies before their 5th birthday, despite a fall by about 20% between 1997 and 2003: from 219 per 1000 live births to 178 (INE 2003). In the UK the rate is 6 per 1000 (World Bank 2005).
Although having halved between 1997 and 2003, the maternal mortality rate is still 408 per 100,000 live births (INE 2003), 40 times higher than the rate in the UK.
16% of 15-49 year olds are HIV+ or have AIDS, the 10th highest prevalence in the world (INE, 2003)
Nearly one in four children under the age of five is underweight (INE, 2003) and between 500,000 and 800,000 people are reliant on food aid and relief each year (UNFAO 2006).
41% of the rural population has access to safe and clean drinking water (GoM, 2005).
DFID: Working to reduce poverty in Mozambique
In the past 5 years Mozambique has received over US$6 billion in aid; of which DFID provided US$430 million (£239 million). DFID has been providing Poverty Reduction Budget Support (PRBS) to the Government of Mozambique (GoM) since 1999.
Making aid effective
What is PRBS? PRBS is when a donor provides funds directly into a partner government's own financial system to support their own poverty reduction strategies (Mozambique's current strategy is called PARPA II). Transferring resources directly to a partner government's budget gives them more money to spend on - for example - paying doctors and teachers and building schools. When circumstances are right, DFID believes that PRBS is the aid instrument most likely to build long term ability of governments to deliver services to their people, whilst helping to build stronger accountability between the state and their citizens since funding is on-budget and is allocated and spent by Government. We only provide aid in this way where we are satisfied that the Government gives sufficient priority to poverty reduction and has open and transparent financial systems.
- In the current DFID's financial year, we will give about US$106 million (£55 million) of aid to Mozambique; over US$69.5 million (£36 million) of this as PRBS.
- DFID and 18 other donors will provide over US$300m in PRBS during 2006, a quarter of all aid to Mozambique.
- DFID has recently agreed a new US$415 million (£215 million) 5 year rolling programme of PRBS with the GoM.
Governance
Poor governance is a cause of poverty. People suffer when governments don't allow participation in political life, provide access to justice, deliver adequate public services or control corruption. Serious problems with governance still exist in much of Africa, but the situation is improving. Working with the Mozambican Government, DFID is:
- Supporting the introduction of an improved public financial management system which will improve expenditure control, transparency and information availability.
- Supporting a number of direct Anti-corruption initiatives including the elaboration of an Anti-corruption Strategy. Wider anti-corruption aims underpin much of DFID's other work, e.g civil service reform.
DFID is also supporting civil society to improve accountability, including:
- Providing funds for a new Centre for Public Integrity, established as an independent corruption "watchdog".
- Supporting civil society advocacy organisations to increase their capacity to engage in policy debate. DFID will soon launch a Civil Society Support Mechanism to fund and develop the capacity of CSOs wishing to undertake governance monitoring and advocacy activities.
- Supporting civil society's participation in the ongoing reform of the Electoral Law.
Health
PRBS helped the GoM to increase spending on health from US$146m (about £80m) to US$230m (about £130m) between 2002 and 2004. In addition to PRBS, DFID will provide US$20m (£11m) of funding directly to the health sector between 2007 and 2009. This will help the GoM to meet its targets in PARPA II. These include:
- Doubling the coverage of children under one immunised to over 90%.
- Reducing child mortality by 20%, from 178 per 1000 live births to 140.
HIV and AIDS
GoM expenditure on HIV and AIDS was about US$11m (£6m) in 2005. External partners provided approximately US$8m (£4.2m) of assistance directly for HIV and AIDS related expenditures, including US$1.8m (£1m) from DFID.
- As an indication of the scale of the challenge, in 2005 only 1.5% of those eligible had access to Anti-Retrovirals (ARVs), that's just 15,900 people.
- If PARPA II targets are met an additional 150,000 people will have access to ARVs, covering about 40% of those in need of treatment.
Education
PRBS has helped the GoM to increase education sector spending from $158m to $270m between 2002 and 2004. In addition to PRBS, external partners provide money directly to the education sector. In 2006 this will amount to nearly US$100m; DFID has recently committed to providing about US$8 million per annum ($4.5 million) until 2009. External funding has already helped the GoM to increase the number of children enrolling in primary school by an average of 300,000 per year for the last few years. If PARPA II targets are met:
- The GoM will recruit an additional 10,000 new teachers every year for the next 3 years.
- The number of children receiving a full basic education will be doubled from 28% to 56% in 7 years.
Water and Sanitation
DFID is working with others to support the Government in their increased service delivery of water supply and sanitation and has been requested by GoM to take on the role of lead donor for the sector mid 2007. In addition to PRBS, from 2007 to 2010 DFID will be directly supporting the GoM in the rural water supply and sanitation.
Hunger and Humanitarian
In addition to PRBS, DFID provided about US$3.08m (£1.6m) in humanitarian aid in 2007 to support 160,000 people in areas most affected by natural disasters. In Regionally we are working with the Southern Africa Regional Hunger & Vulnerability Programme to improve capacities of national governments to reduce hunger and vulnerability.
Trade & Growth
DFID Mozambique's growth strategy focuses on creating an enabling environment for pro-poor growth that enhances poor people's abilities to effectively participate in markets.
- In addition to PRBS, DFID is providing over US$10m (£5.25m) annually to fund the road network and is supporting security of land tenure by providing US$770,000 (£400,000) to the land fund, annually.
- DFID is providing support to the GoM and South Africa to facilitate regional trade through the opening of a one-stop-border post between the two countries.
Making progress against the Millennium Development Goals...
If Mozambique meets the targets in PARPA II it will be on-track for the majority of MDGs, a startling achievement for a country that was ranked as the poorest in the world less than 15 years ago. Some of the achievements include: reducing poverty from 69% in 1997 to 54% in 2003; increasing the number of children enrolling in primary school by over 1m between 1999 and 2005; and, increasing the number of health units by almost 25% in the last 5 years. Huge challenges remain however, including improving the quality of services delivered - particularly in health and education; reducing hunger; increasing access to safe drinking water; and, halting and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS.
For more information about DFID's work in Mozambique please visit www.dfid.gov.ukIf you are a journalist and wish to know more about DFID and its work to reduce poverty in Africa please call DFID press office: 0207023 0600.