Poverty in Mozambique: New Evidence from Recent Household Surveys

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Gender Differences in Time-Poverty in Rural Mozambique

“…Compared to the national poverty incidence of 52%, in rural Nampula about 66% of the population live below the consumption poverty line (Alfani et al, 2012). With regard to social services, access to education, health care and basic infrastructure like water supply, sanitation, roads and transport is very poor, especially in the rural areas.…”

Labour not land constrains agricultural production and food self-sufficiency in maize-based smallholder farming systems in Mozambique

“…In Manica, the per capita poverty line was estimated to be 0.68 US$ per day (Alfani et al 2012) well below the international values of US$ 1.0 or US$ 1.25. If households fully relied on agriculture for their income, the average remuneration in Zembe would be 1.0, 0.39, 0.28 and 0.14 US$ per person per day for Farm types 1, 2, 3a and 3b, respectively.…”

“…The minimum daily wage in the farming sector was calculated from the monthly wage of 81.3 US$, based on national minimum wage (Moçambique 2012), divided by 22 working days in a month, resulting in 3.7 US$ per day. To compare with data in the Third National Poverty Assessments (Alfani et al 2012) expressed in US$ per worker per year, we divided the total annual farm revenue minus costs by the number of labourers. A third comparison made was with the Manica Province poverty line, which is expressed in US$ per capita per day and amounts to 0.60 US$.…”

Was Africa rising? Narratives of development success and failure among the Mozambican middle class

“…Food insecurity was prevalent across rural and urban communities. Around 30% of households consumed on average less than 1,000 k-calories per person per day, well below the minimum standards for survival given by the World Health Organization (Alfani et al, 2012). The poor were also exposed to market price shifts (Raimundo, Crush, & Pendleton, 2014).…”

“…The next section examines how the idea of Mozambique's development success gained purchase (IDA, 2009;IMF, 2014;UN News Centre, 2013). The counter-narrative follows; critics argued that international donors and investors and their partners in government in Maputo had been unable to combat poverty and deliver meaningful development (Alfani, Azzarri, d'Errico, & Molini, 2012;Castel-Branco, 2015;Hanlon & Smart, 2008). The subsequent empirical contribution is positioned against this background of competing perspectives, and interrogates how the economic, social and political landscape of Mozambique was understood by people working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in downtown Maputo in 2014.…”