As part of its fight against poverty, in April 1999 the Government of Mozambique approved the Action Guidelines for the Eradication of Absolute Poverty (GOM 1999). This document will be the main policy and strategy instrument for medium and long term measures to fight poverty by both Government and non-governmental institutions. The Action Guidelines were based on the findings of a study on poverty by the Ministry of Planning and Finance and were the result of co-ordinated work by the ministries with key responsibilities in implementing poverty reduction initiatives in Mozambique.

As poverty in Mozambique is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, the strategies and actions to reduce absolute poverty must also be multi-dimensional. Moreover, since the Action Guidelines only identify general objectives, there is a need for a medium and long-term Action Plan with specific national and sectoral objectives and targets. This Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty 2000 - 2004 (PARPA) has thus been prepared in a multi-dimensional perspective, in two senses. On the one hand, the activities and actions contemplated in the plan embrace economic, social, political and cultural aspects, and on the other hand the programmes and projects have national, provincial, sectoral and local scope.

The PARPA is just one of the Government's planning instruments and complements existing instruments already in use, namely: the Economic and Social Plan, the Three-Year Public Investment Plan and the Annual State Budget. In addition, the development of a medium term fiscal policy will permit realistic poverty reduction activities, with guaranteed resources, to be included in the Government’s annual instruments. Simultaneously, in recent years a number of national and sector policies have been approved that could contribute, directly or indirectly, to achieving the objectives of the PARPA. These include, for example, the Population Policy, in response to the need to harmonise the determinants of demographic population changes with social, economic and cultural factors, and the Food Security Strategy, aimed at creating of conditions for ensuring access to food by the entire population. Other policies are more sector specific and some of these are identified in this Action Plan as immediately relevant to the absolute poverty reduction, such as: education, agriculture, infrastructure, health, employment, social security and welfare, and institutional capacity for poverty issues.

This Action Plan reflects the objectives of the various national and sector strategic plans, providing a global and integrated overview of the actions to be taken in order to reduce poverty. It also identifies the targets to be achieved in each area, in order to permit objective monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring, evaluation, co-ordination and funding mechanisms are identified in the Action Guidelines; all that remains is to obtain the resources for putting them into practice.

The Poverty Reduction Action Plan is divided into five parts: the first part summarises estimates of poverty and its determinants in Mozambique and the global strategies to reduce the incidence of poverty over the next decade. The second part presents the demographic and macro economic setting for the global poverty reduction objectives over the period 2000-2004. The third part highlights efforts to create a favourable economic environment for the country's development. The fourth part presents the specific five-year objectives and targets in the fight against poverty. It also includes a set of sector matrices containing a schematic presentation of the sector components, objectives and targets for the years 2000-2004. The fifth and final part lists a set of appropriate indicators for monitoring achievement of the Action Plan objectives. This part of the document also contains subsequent actions for materialising the Action Plan. Annexes to the Action Plan contain tables and charts that complement the text.

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The main objective of development policies is to improve the population's standard of living, in other words, to fight poverty. In analytical studies on poverty in Mozambique, the concept of poverty has been defined as the inability of individuals to ensure for themselves and their dependants as set of minimum basic conditions for their subsistence (MPF 1998a). These basic minimum conditions have been identified through an absolute poverty line. This poverty line was constructed as the sum of a food poverty line using nutrition levels of approximately 2,150 kilo-calories per person per day, plus a modest amount for non-food expenditure, calculated on the basis of non-food consumption by food insecure households. In monetary terms, the national poverty line was set at 5,433.00 Mt per person per day. In addition, the concept of destitution was also considered - the condition of individuals who are unable to satisfy even their calorific needs (MPF 1998).

Although per capita consumption (total household consumption divided by the number of household members) was used as the basic measure of individual well-being, non-consumption indicators of well-being are also important, such as the male and female illiteracy rate, the infant mortality rate, the percentage of people without access to clean water, chronic malnutrition, among others.

The first attempt to define specific and explicit poverty reduction policies in a context of peace was the 1995 Poverty Reduction Strategy for Mozambique (GOM 1995a). This document defined five specific objectives: (a) to improve living conditions in rural areas, (b) to invest in human capital, (c) to improve social protection networks, (d) to formulate a population policy and (e) to improve national capacity for analysing and monitoring poverty.

The priorities established in the Poverty Reduction Strategy were reflected in the Government’s Five Year Programme 1995 – 1999, which stated: "The Government will concentrate its efforts, as a priority, …in the reduction of the levels of absolute poverty with a view to its eradication in the medium-term and to improving the life of the people, with particular emphasis on education, health, rural development and employment" (GOM 1995).

However, until 1995 estimates of poverty presented some limitations. In the first place, national estimates of poverty levels and the poverty profile were frequently based on extrapolations. In the second place, the objectives established in both the Strategy and the Government Programme were of a global nature and did not contain specific activities in terms of target groups, targets, and mechanisms for co-ordination and collaboration between the various social actors in the fight against poverty.

In 1996 - 1997 there was as a Household Survey of Living Conditions (HS 96/97), the first national survey providing representative data. The database provided by the HS 96/97 made it possible to estimate the incidence of poverty, to define the poverty profile and identify its determining factors.

Analysis of the HS 96/97 data shows that poverty levels in Mozambique are still extremely high. As can be seen in Table 1, average monthly consumption per capita was estimated to be 160,780 Mt or about US$ 170 per capita per year at the exchange rate at the time of the survey. The incidence of absolute poverty is 69.4%, indicating that more than two-thirds of the Mozambican population is living below the poverty line. Poverty is higher in rural areas (71.2%) where 80% of the population live, than in urban areas (62%).

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As can be seen from Table 2, in accordance with the poverty concept used, at the province level the incidence of poverty is highest in Sofala (87.92%), Inhambane (82.60%) and Tete (82.27%). The incidence of destitution or ultra-poverty is similar, being highest in Sofala (65.19), Tete (53.60), and Inhambane (53.73). Maputo city has the lowest incidence of poverty and ultra-poverty, while the least poor province is Cabo Delgado (see Map 1 in Annex 1).

Table 3 presents non-consumption welfare indicators, which are important in their own right. These indicators show that three out of four Mozambican women are illiterate, that the vast majority of the population does not have access to clean water, and that infant and maternal mortality rates remain high. There is a substantial difference between welfare levels in urban and rural areas; the welfare indicators are substantially lower in rural areas.

Table 3 presents indicators of welfare not based on consumption.

The profile shows the magnitude of poverty and its distribution among the various socio-economic groups. It provides information on the characteristics and the heterogeneous nature of the poor. Briefly, the profile highlights the following main points:

Demographic characteristics. Poor people tend to live in larger households than the non-poor. The poor have more children than the non-poor and start having children earlier. As poor households have approximately twice the number of dependants as the non-poor, their dependency rates are substantially higher.

Education. There is a strong relationship between education and poverty. However, differences between the poor and non-poor are lower than gender differences and area of residence, where women and rural areas are worse off. This means that a poor child in an urban area has a greater probability of attending school than a non-poor child in a rural area. Moreover, in rural areas a poor boy has a stronger probability of attending school than a non-poor girl. There is also a strong relationship between the education of the household head and the poverty of the household: families whose head has a better education tend to be less poor. This relationship is especially strong in urban areas and in female headed households.

Health and nutrition. In rural areas, access to health services by the poor and non-poor is roughly the same. In urban areas, however, the non-poor have better formal health assistance than the non-poor. The proportion of children aged 6-11 months who have not been immunised is substantially higher in rural than in urban areas. Chronic malnutrition in children under five is also higher in rural areas.

Agriculture and land ownership. Virtually all rural households have at least one plot of land (machamba), compared to just over half of urban households. The poor and non-poor have roughly the same amount of land per household, although the non-poor tend to use more equipment (inputs) and have more irrigated land than the poor. In general, however, people use very little equipment and inputs and this is reflected in low agricultural productivity throughout the country. Maize and cassava are the most common crops for both the poor and non-poor.

Employment. While the urban non-poor tend to work more for payment than the poor, in rural areas there is no difference in this respect. Here it is not employment as such but other factors, such as the wage level and the number of dependants, that are the main determinants of poverty. In rural areas almost everyone works in agriculture, but particularly the poor. In urban areas, less than one third of the non-poor work in agriculture and this group is represented more in the "commerce and services" and "public services" sectors.

Access to basic social services. In rural areas there is no substantial difference between poor and non-poor in terms of type of water source and sanitation; most people depend on wells, rivers, lakes and latrines. In urban areas, however, the non-poor tend to have access to piped

water and a health network whereas the poor depend more on standpipes and public wells. In rural areas there is little difference between the poor and non-poor in terms of distance to the various services (e.g. school, doctor, nurse, market, telephone etc.).

An analysis of HS 96/97 data, identified the following determinants of poverty in Mozambique:

• Slow economic growth until the early nineties.
• Poor education of economically active household members, especially women.
• High dependency rates in households.
• Low productivity of family agriculture.
• Absence of employment opportunities in agriculture and elsewhere.
• Weak development of infrastructure in rural areas (MPF 1998).

The Action Guidelines document was produced in order to update the general poverty reduction strategy in Mozambique in the light of the new and more comprehensive poverty analyses based on the HS 96/97 data. In the Action Guidelines the fundamental premises that impact on poverty eradication are economic growth and increased investment in the development of human capital. The Action Guidelines identify the strategic sectors where activities must be focused in order to eradicate poverty - education, health, agriculture, employment, basic public works and social assistance. In addition, the Action Guidelines emphasise the importance of promoting the status of women, given their important role in producing an income for the household, and the active involvement of vulnerable individuals and communities in the development process.

That Action Guidelines document emphasises the need to direct poverty reduction activities towards the regions with the highest indices of poverty or which contain most poor people. In poor regions, priority is given to the following target groups:

• Households with many dependants.
• Households with a single source of income, mainly subsistence agriculture.
• Households headed by women, particularly windows, divorced women and single mothers.
• Households where the average machamba is smaller than the norm for that agro-ecological area.
• Households headed by people without any permanent income source (even subsistence agriculture) and who live from occasional work.

The global objective emphasised in the Action Guidelines is to reduce the incidence of absolute poverty by about 30% over the next ten years. In order to achieve this objective the Action Guidelines emphasise the need:

• to maintain rapid and sustainable economic growth by stimulating the development of industry and construction and increasing productivity in agriculture.
• to give priority to the development of human capital through public investments in education, health, access to clean water and environmental sanitation.
• to increase agricultural productivity in the family sector, particularly in areas with high agro-ecological potential.
• to develop infrastructure in rural areas.
• to protect the most vulnerable groups through social security and assistance programmes.
• to promote employment and self-employment in both rural and urban areas through vocational training and the promotion of income generating micro-projects and enterprises, with particular attention to women, unemployed and socially excluded young people.
• to improve technical and institutional capacity to monitor and evaluate poverty and analyse research in the poverty field in order to improve knowledge of the phenomenon and select the appropriate strategies to fight it (GOM 1999).

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The purpose of identifying the demographic and macro-economic context is to integrate and ensure the compatibility of regional, sector, provincial and local poverty reduction objectives and targets. Demographic and economic dimensions have provided the basis for estimating the efforts required to achieve the objective established in the Action Guidelines - a 30% reduction in the incidence of absolute poverty in the first decade of the new millennium.²

During the period 2000- 2004 it is expected that the size, structure, and components of change of the Mozambican population will evolve in accordance with the indicators presented in Table 4 in Annex 1. Around the year 2004 the Mozambican population will be about 19 million inhabitants, distributed among the main regions as follows: 32.5% in the North, 41.8% in the Centre, 19.5% in the South and 5.6% in Maputo City. This population growth results from the combination of the main components of demographic dynamics - forecasts of population growth and death and birth rates.

It is estimated that over the next five years life expectancy will rise by about 4 years. However, this estimate does not yet take into account the impact of AIDS. High fertility and dependency rates are two other important indicators that impact on poverty levels in Mozambique. It is anticipated that fertility will fall about 7% compared to 1997, as the results of the socio-cultural mechanisms of the reproduction of the population. As regards dependency rates, economic and social policies will have to take into account the very young structure of the Mozambican population. This high proportion of dependants, children and young people in particular, is typical of a developing country. Thus, in the next five years, the dependency rates will evolve as expressed in item 1.3 of Table 4 (annex). It should be born in mind that the young structure of the population will determine a certain labour supply, the size and proportion of school age children, the specific requirements of health services and a range of other consumption and welfare needs. The respective sectors must take these features into account in order to guarantee adequate harmony between sector plans and the tendencies and dynamics of demographic structure and variables.

For the Action Plan to have an impact on poverty reduction there must be a macro-economic framework that guarantees stability and sustained economic growth in the medium and long term. Reducing poverty, and especially absolute poverty, depends not only on stability and economic growth but principally on the way this economic growth benefits the vulnerable groups in particular.

Economic stability will continue to be a critical factor in ensuring that the assets of the poor do not deteriorate in the short, medium or long term. Policies that guarantee low inflation are important for maintaining economic stability. It is expected that these policies will permit average annual inflation to remain stable at around 4 to 6%.

In recent years the economy has been growing fast but living standards have risen more slowly. This is due to the impact of the high population growth rates mentioned earlier. For this reason, continued economic growth at the current rate is essential, in order to minimise the impact of demographic growth rates and also to achieve a real reduction in the incidence of absolute poverty. Table 4 highlights the evolution of production and living standards of the population in the period 2000 – 2004. According to available indicators, over the next five years economic growth of some 7 to 9% a year is envisaged. Should this happen, over the period 2000-2004, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita will rise by approximately 5% a year. In this case, the Action Plan will be able to draft policies that influence economic growth in such a way that it reduces the incidence of absolute poverty among the population.

The overall objective is to reduce the incidence of absolute poverty from its current level of about 70% to about less than 50% over the next ten years, in other words, to reduce the incidence of poverty by 30%. In order to achieve this, the Government has the intermediate objective of reducing the incidence of absolute poverty from the current level of about 70% to about 60% by the year 2004.

Over the next decade (2000-2009) the population will grow at an annual average rate of some 2.7%. Natural population growth means that the number of poor will also rise. Consequently, in order to achieve a 30% reduction in the incidence of poverty, sustainable economic growth will have to be achieved and harmonised with policies and programmes that reduce the negative impact of population growth (see Table 4 in Annex 1).

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The general objective of the Action Plan is to develop and permit effective co-ordinated monitoring of activities to reduce poverty in the medium-term and eradicate it in the long-term. Key elements for the success of the development programme and the assault on poverty are:

• Maintaining economic stability and a rapid and sustainable pace of economic growth, taking into account the trends in the country’s demographic variables (see Part 2).
• Harmony between the Action Plan and other policy instruments such as the Population Policy, the Food Security Strategy, the National Strategic Plan to Fight STD/HIV/AIDS, the Post-Beijing Action Plan and the Integrated National Social Action, Employment and Youth Programme (see sections 3.2.1 - 3.2.5).
• The allocation of resources so as to reduce poverty, a priority Government objective, through a medium term budget policy that includes the development of a Medium-Term Fiscal Scenario and the harmonisation of this instrument with the Economic and Social Plan and the State Budget (see sections 3.2.6).
• To guarantee institutional co-ordination and partnership between the Government, NGOs, religious confessions and the private sector on poverty reduction initiatives (see section 5.1).

Co-ordinated efforts to reduce poverty in Mozambique require the harmonisation of PARPA activities with other policy instruments - the Population Policy, the Food Security Strategy, the National Strategic Plan to Fight STD/HIV/AIDS, the Medium-Term Fiscal Scenario, the Economic and Social Plan and the State Budget.

The Population Policy was approved by the Council of Ministers in April 1999. This document is intended to influence the determinants of demographic variables, namely, mortality, fertility and migration so that population tendencies and dynamics contribute to the harmonious economic growth and the human development of the Mozambican population.

The main objectives of the Population Policy are:

• To promote the inclusion of population factors in policies and programmes aimed at improving the quality of life of the population, particularly in the provinces that have the highest incidence of poverty.
• To guarantee the availability of up-to-date information on the situation of the population and to provide people with information and education that enable women, men and adolescents to manage their reproductive and sexual lives.

• To help improve the population’s life expectancy by reducing maternal and under-five mortality rates.
• To promote multi-sector and inter-disciplinary co-ordination in the formulation and implementation of intervention programmes on population issues.
• To contribute to a balanced spatial distribution of the population that reduces rural-urban migration.

As already mentioned in Part 2 of this Action Plan, demographic variables must be taken into account in the overall objective of reducing the incidence of poverty over the next decade. Poverty means the absence of a long, healthy life, the absence of education and an acceptable standard of living. In this respect, the Action Plan and the population policy share the same vision - that the satisfaction of people's basic needs lies at the heart of development policy. For example, the priority of improving the population’s reproductive and sexual education is emphasised in the education and health components respectively. Overall, aspects of the various policies for improving living conditions in a context of sustained economic growth and the rational use of environmental resources are integrated into the various sectoral components presented in Part 4 of the Action Plan.

The Food Security Strategy was approved by the Council of Ministers in December 1998. Food security is defined as physical and economic access by all individuals at all times to sufficient food to sustain an active and healthy life (GOM 1998, MPF 1998). The necessary conditions for achieving this objective included the adequate availability of food, guaranteed access to food through own production, purchase, exchange, gifts and in other ways, and the capacity of people to use the food, thereby absorbing sufficient nutrients for their needs.

The Strategy envisages the implementation of policy measures that ensure greater stability in family resources through (i) increased output, (ii) diversification of subsistence crops, (iii) expansion and diversification of income generation opportunities through agricultural and non-agricultural activities, and (iv) better knowledge of food production and conservation technologies.

The Strategy and the Action Plan share the same vision on the necessary conditions for reducing poverty and achieving food security in the country. Both documents emphasise the importance of economic growth and the development of human capital as fundamental pillars in this process. Although many of the actions envisaged in the Food Security Strategy are also included in the various sectoral components of the Action Plan, the Strategy also includes some specific activities to increase efficiency in agricultural marketing processes in order to improve food availability and access. Specifically, the Strategy emphasises the need:

• To create a marketing network able to provide the necessary productive inputs and to guarantee that agricultural surpluses are bought (availability).
• To create a rural financial system capable of supporting production activities and marketing by small and medium farmers and traders (availability).
• To promote access to capital by small and medium traders in order to stimulate marketing and competition (access).
• To promote nutrition education on healthy eating habits (utilisation).

Mozambique is facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic that in 1998 meant an adult prevalence of about 14.5% (MOH 1999). The main determinants of HIV/AIDS are poverty, unemployment, and sexual taboos and traditions.

A National Strategic Plan to Fight STD/HIV/AIDS (2000-2002) has been prepared to deal with the epidemic. This Strategic Plan is in accordance with the objectives and strategies of other policies and programmes such as the Population Policy and the Action Guidelines for the Eradication of Absolute Poverty. Its priority actions are the following:

• Activities to prevent infection, through sexual education, the treatment of STD, counselling and voluntary tests.
• Activities to reduce impact through counselling, vocational training and the promotion of self-employment.

The Post Beijing Action Plan is the Government’s commitment to promote the advancement of women. The Government has always pursued a policy on women’s emancipation aimed at guaranteeing their participation in all spheres of society and gradually improving their standard of living.

The Government has thus defined a strategy that includes various activities to eliminate discrimination against women in both public and private life within a gender perspective.

Approved by the Council of Ministers on 5 August 1997, the plan was based on the Government's Five Year Programme and the Beijing Declaration and its objective is to help materialise Government priorities and policies with regard to equality of access and opportunity for women. It includes poverty reduction initiatives through education programmes, credit, technical assistance and the development of the informal sector.

The main objective of this inter-sectoral programme, co-ordinated by the Commission for Social Reintegration, is to provide job opportunities and innovative and alternative forms of income generation directed primarily at vulnerable groups comprising young people at risk of social exclusion, women, the disabled and others, with a view to fighting social exclusion and poverty.

The fight against poverty means directing scarce budget resources at activities that contribute to sustained comprehensive economic growth and a better distribution of resources within the economy. The medium term fiscal scenario, an instrument for programming and managing financial resources, will introduce a medium-term vision into budget programming, guiding the allocation of resources in accordance with the Government’s objectives.

The integration of sector policies through a hierarchy of objectives, where poverty reduction is clearly the centre of attention, will permit the realistic inclusion of poverty reduction initiatives, with assured resources, into the various annual Government instruments. The Government's main economic and social objectives, especially those identified in the Action Plan, will be pursued through their disaggregation in the main annual economic management instruments such as the Economic and Social Plan and the State Budget.

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The next five years (2000-2004) will be the basis for launching an integrated and co-ordinated programme aimed at eradicating absolute poverty. To this end, specific objectives and targets have been defined for the period.

The objectives defined in this Action Plan are in conformity with the objectives established in the strategic sector plans and programmes for the next five years. The Action Plan will be revised and updated each year in order to reflect realistic targets, given that there are integrated sector programmes with a 3-4 year time horizon. As already mentioned, the purpose of this Action Plan is to systematise those activities in the various sectors that appear to have the potential to make a direct contribution to reducing poverty.

Systematisation of these activities will facilitate the definition of priorities for the allocation of resources and will also make it possible to monitor and evaluate poverty reduction activities. Consequently, the following specific objectives have been identified for each of the key poverty reduction sectors:

The policy objective in the Education sector is to guarantee that all children have access to primary education. The central target is rapid progress towards universal primary education, with particular emphasis on higher enrolment by girls. The poverty reduction priority in education is improved access to basic education opportunities, especially in rural areas, reducing gender disparities in both admissions and school performance. Current admission and enrolment rates will be improved and the school network will be expanded through the construction of new classrooms and the training and recruitment of teachers.

The objective in the area of Health is to continue to promote and improve the provision of good quality and sustainable health care for the population, combined with efforts by other sectors. Expanded and improved quality and equity in access to health care will be an important component in the global strategy to fight poverty among the most vulnerable sectors of population.

The essential contribution of Social Action to reducing poverty and social inequality, will be to integrate the most disadvantaged social strata into the development process. This will require, among others, the following specific actions:

• to improve the quality of social assistance services for destitute social groups in order to reduce urban and rural poverty.
• to strengthen the role of the family in protecting and developing all its members, with particular attention to children, the disabled and the elderly.
• to promote the psycho-social rehabilitation, education and vocational training of street children, orphans and destitute children and to provide for their social reintegration into their families.
• to provide social rehabilitation for delinquent children, child victims of prostitution and sexual abuse and to provide for their reintegration into society.

All these activities are based on the principle of non-institutionalisation, community participation, social justice, and the sustainability of programmed activities.

The medium term objective in the area of Agriculture and Fisheries is to expand production capacity and improve agricultural productivity based on the development of small and medium producers.

In the specific component of post-harvest management the objective will be to make better use of surpluses in the medium-term, by promoting the processing and conservation of the main local crops.

Community participation, inter-sectoral co-ordination and decentralisation are basic fundamentals of rural development. Activities to promote rural development focus on recognition of the value of local resources, favourable terms of trade for goods and services in order to reduce transaction costs, and adequate financial services.

The sectoral objectives in the employment field over the five-year period focus on three main components: (i) the promotion of employment and self employment through the rehabilitation and construction of infrastructure specially in rural areas (ii) vocational training that equips the economically active population to take advantage of employment opportunities and (iii) social security that ensures that all workers, irrespective of the sector and the size of their employer, can have a social security system that allows them to prepare for unforeseen stress situations.

The main sectoral concerns over the next five years will be to extend and improve the infrastructure network, access to clean water, access to housing and to safe and sustainable energy sources and to communications.

Access problems in rural areas, particularly access to the most productive areas, the need to establish links between these and the main urban centres, dictate the need for a road policy.

Sectoral objectives in the water supply field during the five-year period will concentrate on expanding water supply and sanitation coverage, especially for rural and low-income populations. This objective will be achieved through the provision of basic infrastructure with incentives for private sector involvement in the construction of water sources.

Investment in the environmental sanitation field will concentrate on rehabilitating and conserving existing sanitation infrastructure, particularly in the towns where the situation is worse, namely, Tete, Quelimane, Beira and Maputo.

Objective 1.1: To ensure that children have access to basic education of an acceptable quality, with due consideration of the need to reduce regional and gender disparities in admissions and school performance.

1.1.1. Achieve a Gross Admission Rate of 93% in EP1.
1.1.2. Achieve a Gross Enrolment Rate of 88.1%, implying the provision of 33,516 classrooms and 49,622 teachers.
1.1.3. Achieve a Gross Enrolment Rate of 26% in EP2, implying the provision of 4,422 classrooms and 5,553 teachers.

Objective 1.2: To ensure access to school and retention of children from poor families through the free provision of school materials and uniforms.

1.2.1: School Fund Programme (Caixa Escolar) coverage of 75% of children from poor households.

Objective 1.3: To ensure that girls have access to school and remain in school, by making parents and communities aware of the importance of girls' attendance and through the free provision of school materials, uniforms and coverage of other educational expenses.

1.3.1: To increase the proportion of girls in EP1 from the current 43% to 45%

Objective 2.1: To expand non-formal education and adult education to all parts of the country, rural areas in particular.

2.1.1: To increase the supply of literacy services in rural areas such that all districts in the country can offer these services.

Objective 2.2: To encourage companies and non-governmental organisations to provide literacy programmes for their workers and surrounding communities.

2.2.1. To ensure that workers in companies have access to literacy programmes.

Objective 3.1: Expand access to Technical- Vocational Education, particularly in rural areas, as a way of providing vocational skills leading to better paid job opportunities.

3.1.1. To reopen and dynamise all the elementary agricultural and trade schools in the country.

Objective 4.1: To increase the productivity of small farmers specially those with a labour shortage (many dependants) through investment in extension activities.

4.1.1. To facilitate and encourage the use of compost, herbicides, fertilisers and pesticides (when appropriate and profitable). To increase the use of pesticides and fertilisers from 1.8% to 6%.
4.1.2. To facilitate and encourage the use of improved seeds.
4.1.3. To increase the proportion of the population with access to extension services from 17.5% to 27%.
4.1.4. To increase the proportion of households using animal traction from 4.9% to 5.3% in areas where this is practised.
4.1.5. To encourage and begin the development of small irrigation systems.

Objective 4.2: To continue work on the application of the land law and its respective regulations.

4.2.1. To monitor access to and ownership of productive land by each rural household.

Objective 4.3: To improve the potential of small fishermen through the introduction of techniques that increase productivity.

4.3.1. To introduce and guarantee new conservation techniques in coastal areas.
4.3.2. Through extension services, to encourage people to include fish products in their diets.

Objective 4.4: To promote animal husbandry as a source of food security and income.

4.4.1. To encourage the consumption of meat, milk and eggs through extension services.
4.4.2. To promote the development of cattle through the rehabilitation of cattle infrastructure.
4.4.3. To develop promotion and restocking programmes and the preservation of local breeds.

Objective 4.5: To improve access to market information in rural areas.

4.5.1. To maintain the national information system on agricultural markets
4.5.2. To expand provincial information systems on agricultural markets

Objective 4.6: To guarantee that agricultural surpluses are put to better use.

4.6.1. To facilitate increased storage capacity for crops

Objective 5.1: To promote access to financial resources by low income rural populations.

5.1.1. To guarantee adequate financial services for 100,000 clients.

Objective 5.2: To encourage and help rural communities to intervene in local investment.

5.2.1. To involve 20 districts and 100 rural communities in the identification, implementation and maintenance of public investments.

Objective 5.3: To promote community responsibility for the management of natural resources.

5.3.1. To prepare and disseminate local resource management methodologies.

Objective 5.4: To promote an associational culture and rural communication.

5.4.1. To promote the establishment of local sports clubs and cultural centres.
5.4.2. To create local information networks, including wider use of community audio visual media.

Objective 6.1: To expand and improve the quality of roads in order to permit marketing and reduce transaction costs.

6.1.1. To reduce the proportion of impassable roads from the current 10% to under 5%.
6.1.2. To reduce the proportion of bad roads from the current 32% to 25%.
6.1.3. To ensure that each province and in particular districts with the greatest agricultural and livestock potential are linked to each other and to their respective provincial capitals by roads that permit circulation throughout the year.
6.1.4. To guarantee that 100% of the localities in districts with the greatest agricultural potential are linked to their district capitals by roads that permit circulation throughout the year.

Objective 6.2: To facilitate commercial exchange between peasants and access to manufactured goods and agricultural inputs.

6.2.1. To ensure the existence of district and village markets (commercial network) and give priority to credit and savings systems in the districts with the greatest agricultural potential.

Objective 7.1: To ensure that the population has access to clean water, specially the rural population.

7.1.1. To ensure that 50% of the urban population has access to water supplies.
7.1.2. To ensure that 40% of the rural population has access to water supplies.
7.1.3. To increase low cost sanitation coverage in urban areas to 50%.

Objective 8.1: To pursue the promotion of self-construction and low-cost housing.

8.1.1. In urban areas, to reduce the percentage of the population living in huts and shacks.

Objective 9.1: To expand electrification and promote its use for agro-industrial and domestic purposes.

9.1.1. To ensure that all district capitals are supplied with electricity.

9.1.2. The electrification of 60,000 new houses in urban, peri- urban and rural areas.

Objective 10.1: To reduce the geographic isolation of the population and promote access to information.

10.1.1. To ensure the extension of communications systems, particularly in rural areas

Objective 11.1: To promote and provide good quality and sustainable health care, equitably and efficiently, making it accessible to the population, especially the less privileged groups.

11.1.1. To increase coverage and access to good quality basic health services, particularly in rural areas.

Objective 11.2: To increase access and improve the quality of health care for women.

11.2.1. To reduce the intra-hospital maternal mortality rate to 100/100,000 live births.
11.2.2. To cover about 90% of women in ante-natal consultations, with the effective identification of High Risk Obstetric Cases.
11.2.3. To increase institutional delivery coverage to 50%.
11.2.4. To increase post-natal consultation coverage to 50%.
11.2.5. To increase women's family planning coverage to 12%.

Objective 11.3: To improve Infant and Under-five Health Care.

11.3.1. To reduce the under-five mortality rate from 219/1000 live births to <200/1000 live births.
11.3.2. To maintain coverage of first consultations for infants aged 0-11 months at 98% (the 1997 coverage level).
11.3.3. To increase coverage of first consultations for children aged 0-4 years from 46% to 60%.

Objective 11.4: To prevent the main endemic diseases affecting children through immunisation.

11.4.1. To ensure that at least 75% of children born in the next ten years have complete immunisation (with 8 antigens) before they are one year old, especially in rural areas.
11.4.2. To maintain the current national coverage of 98% immunisation of children under one against tuberculosis.
11.4.3. To achieve 98% national immunisation coverage against polio and DTP for children aged 0-23 months.
11.4.4. To achieve 95% national immunisation coverage against measles for children aged 9-23 months.
11.4.5. To achieve 60% immunisation of women of fertile age against tetanus.

Objective 11.5: To improve the health and health knowledge of young people and adolescents through school health activities.

11.5.1. To create appropriate health services that meet the reproductive health needs of adolescents.
11.5.2. To train personnel for family planning work with adolescents, the treatment of abortion complications and the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Objective 12.1: To prevent HIV infection.

12.1.1. To carry out good quality essential prevention actions for the 2,310,000 people who acknowledge that they have had sexual relations with irregular partners.
12.1.2. To expand coverage of the more vulnerable groups: to provide peer education for 1,250,000 vulnerable people.
12.1.3. To carry out education, information and communication campaigns on STD/HIV/AIDS, including plays, for 3,900,000 people.
12.1.4. To increase the availability of condoms in places frequented by high-risk groups.
12.1.5. To establish six counselling offices and voluntary and confidential tests in the cities of Maputo, Chimoio, Beira, Nampula, Tete and Quelimane.

Objective 12.2: To provide assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS.

12.2.1. To provide access to essential healthcare: 30,000 instances of clinical care and 9,500 of home care for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families.
12.2.2. To create 8 units for daytime hospitalisation in Maputo, Beira, Chimoio, Nampula, Tete and Quelimane.
12.2.3. To provide psycho-medical-social assistance in all health centres in the district capitals in the South, Centre and North corridors.

Objective 12.3: To reduce the impact of AIDS.

12.3.1. To guarantee access to voluntary and confidential tests for 32,000 people living with HIV.
12.3.2. To guarantee the distribution of 4,500,000 condoms for people living with HIV.
12.3.3. To guarantee access to credit for income generation activities for 13,500 people a year living with HIV/AIDS or members of their families.

Objective 13.1: To reduce the prevalence and incidence of lack of micro-nutrients (Iodine, Vitamin A., Iron) in children and women of fertile age.

(Vitamin A)
13.1.1. To distribute vitamin A in capsules to all children aged 6-59 months brought for consultations.
13.1.2. To increase consumption of food rich in vitamin A.
13.1.3. To investigate the viability of fortifying sugar with vitamin A.

(Iodine)
13.1.4. To continue the distribution of capsules for the target group (school age children and women in the affected districts).
13.1.5. To promote the availability and consumption of iodised salt.

(Iron)
13.1.6. To investigate the possibility of reinforcing food with iron.

Objective 13.2: To reduce protein-energy malnutrition.

13.2.1. To reduce stunting rates, low birthweight and improve nutrition education in health units and communities.
13.2.2. To improve coverage and treatment of children with severe malnutrition.

Objective 14.1: To make the rehabilitation and construction of rural infrastructure a source of local employment.

14.1.1. To guarantee that at least 10% of the labour used in the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure and in agricultural and industrial undertakings, is recruited locally.

Objective 14.2: To promote employment and self-employment in rural areas.

14.2.1. To promote employment through agro-industrial companies, large scale agriculture and in small and micro agricultural enterprises.
14.2.2. To reduce the proportion of the urban population dependent on agriculture from 45% to 25%.

Objective 14.3: To create job opportunities for people living in absolute poverty but who are able to work.

14.3.1. To identify, guide and train 16,000 poor people for their socio-economic development.

Objective 15.1: To equip the uneducated economically active population to take advantage of job opportunities.

15.1.1. To ensure that in 50% of uneducated households at least one person has some vocational training, preferably the head of the household.

Objective 16.1: To develop direct social assistance programmes for needy individuals in need, especially destitute children or those from poor households, the elderly, and the disabled.

16.1.1. To provide food subsidies and social support for 90,132 women.
16.1.2. To assist 16,000 children living in difficult circumstances.
16.1.3. To engage 33,140 disabled people in the Community Based Care Programme (CBC) and provide economic support for a further 3,000.
16.1.4. To provide food subsidies for 54,390 disabled people.
16.1.5. To help 629,270 elderly people through the food subsidy programme.
16.1.6. To involve 1,200 drug addicts in rehabilitation programmes.
16.1.7. To assist 3,120 chronically sick and destitute people with food subsidies and social assistance.
16.1.8. To involve 7,500 young people in development associations.
16.1.9. To involve religious confessions and NGOs.

Objective 16.2: To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the current pension systems in both the civil service and other sectors.

16.2.1. To ensure that every worker, irrespective of the sector and the size of his/her employer, has a social security system that enables them to prepare for unforeseen stress situations such as accidents at work.

Objective 17.1: To engage 33,000 people from vulnerable groups in income generating activities (5,000 in the formal sector) - women, the disabled, drug addicts, ex-convicts and people infected with HIV.

17.1.1. To engage 6,000 women in income generating activities.
17.1.2. To engage 750 members of households with destitute children and 4,000 street children in income generating activities.
17.1.3. To engage 3,000 disabled people in income generating activities.
17.1.4. To engage 500 former young drug addicts in income generating activities.
17.1.5. To engage 3,000 ex-convicts in income generating activities.
17.1.6. 16,500 poor people able to work preferably single mothers, unemployed youths of both sexes and members of poor households.

Objective 18.1: To ensure the availability of food.

18.1.1. To improve the workings of the disaster management system, including a global early warning system.
18.1.2. To establish mechanisms for ensuring the availability of basic foodstuffs for distribution in the event of emergencies.
18.1.3. To increase the capacity of households to produce sufficient calories throughout the whole year.
18.1.4. To actively encourage the establishment of farmers’ associations able to negotiate more aggressively the acquisition of inputs and to serve as focal points for extension activities.

Objective 18.2: To ensure access to food.

18.2.1. To encourage the entry of new traders into marketing systems by reducing the bureaucracy associated with obtaining a licence.
18.2.2. To improve postal services and the mobile banking system in rural areas in order to assist families with their communications and the transfer of remittances.
18.2.3. To establish a provincial system for gathering food prices.
18.2.4. To encourage the establishment of savings systems in rural areas.

Objective 18.3: To ensure the use of food.

18.3.1. To improve the quality of diets in rural areas.
18.3.2. To include nutrition education in training programmes for extension agents and in primary education programmes.

Objective 19.1: To promote in-service training in the formulation, analysis and monitoring of programmes and policies to fight poverty for planning technicians in ministries and at province level.

19.1.1. To guarantee that every year all sector and provincial development plans and budgets explicitly contemplate the fight against poverty.
19.1.2. To build the capacity of sectors and provinces to produce and analyse poverty monitoring indicators.

Objective 19.2: To promote postgraduate training in poverty analysis and evaluation techniques.

19.2.1. To train 10 national technicians.

Objective 19.3: To introduce seminars on poverty analysis into the curricula of university economic and social science courses.

19.3.1. To hold annual seminars and encourage thesis work on poverty.

Objective 20.1: To promote and conduct studies on the poverty situation in the country, in particular specific studies at province and district level.

20.1.1. To conduct studies that permit specific interventions to reduce poverty in each district and province.

Objective 20.2: To obtain more detailed knowledge of the specific features of priority target groups for poverty reduction and appropriate policies to help them.

20.2.1. To propose appropriate interventions for each specific target group.

Objective 20.3: To ensure the efficient allocation of resources.

20.3.1. To conduct studies on the financial impact (State Budget) of the various alternative poverty reduction policies and strategies.

This section presents matrices for the period 2000-2004 for the following sectors: Education, Agriculture, Infrastructure, Health, Employment, Social Security and Capacity Building on poverty issues.

Each matrix has nine columns: the first contains the various components, numbered from 1 to 18 in section 4.2. The second and third columns summarise the specific objectives and targets and their respective identification numbers. The fourth column provides information on the current situation in 1999. When it was not possible to obtain estimates for that year, the last available estimates were used. Columns 5-8 present the activities (or projections) for the years 2000-2004. However, not all sectors have been able to provide data for this period. In most cases it was only possible to complete the 2000 column, on the basis of information provided by the sectors on specific activities for that year. The budget for the implementation of the Action Plan will have to be revised each year and made compatible with the medium-term fiscal scenario.

(Use the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view Sectoral Matrices) (pdf 145kb)

Contents

5.1 Implementation and Coordination Mechanisms

In order to ensure the efficient and effective implementation of the Action Plan, inter-sectoral co-ordination mechanisms have to be established.

Since poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, it requires the involvement of a variety of institutions in the formulation of strategies and programmes to fight poverty, and in monitoring and evaluating their implementation. One of the great challenges in achieving the objectives of the fight against poverty is to mobilise public awareness so that society as a whole feels responsible and that it is part of the process.

The Government has begun the process of diagnosing the population's level of well-being by establishing the profile and the determinants of poverty. Given that, in addition to Government institutions, all segments of society should play an active role in the fight against poverty, there is also a need for the massive involvement of civil society: religious confessions, NGOs, community organisations, professional associations and the private sector. The full involvement of civil society will permit complementarity between the various institu-tions, and the rational use of resources in the implementation of specific programmes to fight poverty.

The private sector, represented by the business community should play a relevant role befitting its potential in the fight against poverty, establishing partnerships with communities, municipalities and the Government. The simplification of procedures for the establishment of private sector initiatives, together with the establishment of effective norms, is a key element in the creation of a favourable environment for the development of small and medium enterprises in particular.

Civil society and NGOs in particular are the third type of social institution of importance in the development process. Their close links with communities give NGOs and religious confessions a comparative advantage in the conception and implementation of specific programmes to fight poverty. They can act as intermediaries between the Government and communities, and play an active role in the dissemination of information on the underlying objectives of the Poverty Reduction Action Plan. Associated with the dissemination of information, civil society must also play an active role in advocacy leading to national consensus in the fight against poverty. The implementation of specific local programmes is another area where NGOs have an advantage.

Academic and research institutions must be involved in the diagnosis of the situation in the country in order to facilitate an understanding of the impact of policies on the well-being of citizens, and to influence the application of the results of studies in the formulation and/or revision of policies. In addition, academic institutions can play a role in the creation of national policy research and analysis capacity by promoting specialist courses in close partnership with Government institutions and the international community.

The media should participate in publicising relevant and successful experiences in the fight against poverty, thereby stimulating greater involvement by the public in the implementation of specific programmes. Given the nature of its activity, the media play an important role in the dissemination of the Poverty Reduction Action Plan so that the population know about it and become aware of the need for society to be totally committed to the fight against poverty.

In short, this exercise should permit the various stakeholders and decision-makers in parti-cular, to gradually influence the conception and implementation of more explicit and targeted development policies that accelerate poverty reduction. All institutions and society in general should concentrate attention and priorities on programmed activities that fight poverty. This collaboration will facilitate synergies between Government institutions and intermediary organisations that have closer links with communities. The Artists Against Poverty Movement is one example of the use of synergies in art, and an instrument for conveying to everyone the message that they should be committed to the fight against poverty. In addition, the Artists Against Poverty Movement made it possible to establish partnerships with the donor community and with the business sector in the fight against poverty.

The establishment of a legal and institutional framework to ensure community involvement and participation in the fight against poverty is of particular importance. One of the strategies for the institutionalisation of society’s participation in this process will be the decentralised implementation of the Poverty Reduction Action Plan on the basis of the experience gained during the ongoing participatory district planning process. More specific action plans need to be formulated at province level. To a large extent the formulation of provincial plans will depend on the preparation of provincial poverty profiles. Decentralised planning is an important step and an important component in ensuring that local needs are reflected in policy formulation and programme implementation. Simultaneously, there is a need to develop a public awareness raising strategy that builds on the efforts needed to fight poverty.

Given that poverty reduction must be an integrated exercise, activities must be co-ordinated in order to avoid duplication of effort or the adoption of strategies that are incompatible with the poverty production objective. This coordination should take place at district, province and central level. There are a variety of experiences of co-ordinated work that should be disseminated.

The Technical Population Office (TPO) is an inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral forum. Its responsibilities include monitoring and commenting on implementation of the population policy and its consistency with the poverty reduction objective. At the moment this forum only operates at central level. In order to make the Action Plan more operational and bring it closer to the local reality, the forum should also be established at provincial level to supervise the implementation of the Plan. In the fight against poverty, the Technical Population Office should have the following overall responsibilities:

• To guarantee harmonised efforts in the fight against poverty.
• To dynamise the preparation of specific poverty reduction action plans.
• To regularly monitor and evaluate implementation of the Action Plan.

More specifically, implementation of the Action Plan means achieving the following specific objectives:

Objective: To establish inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms for implementating and monitoring the Action Plan.

• Targets: The Technical Population Office should accompany implementation of the Action Plan and report to the Economic Council.

Objective: To identify monitoring indicators and establish the respective national and provincial systems through the Economic and Social Plan.

• Targets: Studies undertaken annually

Achieving the objectives of the Action Plan necessarily means establishing a monitoring system that regularly measures its rate of implementation and its impact.

This Action Plan will be monitored each year in each sector. To facilitate the monitoring of Plan activities, the sectors involved in the Plan will have to produce annual matrices containing a set of indicators. These will include input, process and impact indicators:

1. Input indicators refer to the "means" by which Action Plan activities will be implemented. These indicators measure the quantity (or quality) of resources provided for Plan activities. For example, indicators of this kind include funds, human resources, training, equipment, materials and the recurrent costs of these items.
2. Process indicators measure the performance of the activities carried out with the resources made available during implementation of the activity. Depending on the nature of the activity, this kind of indicator could include: number of people vaccinated, small farmers visited, kilometres of road built, etc.
3. Impact indicators measure the quantity and quality of the results achieved during Plan implementation and the provision of goods and services. In the case of the Action Plan impact indicators can be identified by component (for example education), or can be more comprehensive (for example, changes in poverty levels due to increased access to education).

Permanent monitoring of overall implementation of the Action Plan will require the identification of sector process monitoring indicators; the more comprehensive impact evaluation will require household surveys that can be conducted every five years.

The selection of global indicators has been based on the following criteria:

1. Non-ambiguity
2. Comparability
3. Data collection capacity

A system for gathering both quantitative and qualitative information must be established at national and provincial level in order to regularly accompany implementation and measure the impact of the programmes included in the Action Plan. In addition to National Surveys there must be rapid participatory assessments involving civil society, to complement the information gathered by the sectors. The integrated data collection and dissemination system to be established will take into account the capacity of the various institutions involved in the process.

The main monitoring instruments will be the Economic and Social Plan, the State Budget and specific annual reports. Given the above criteria and the component objectives contemplated in the Plan the following indicators are suggested:

The following five-year indicators have also been considered:

• Maternal mortality rate.
• Infant mortality rate.
• Neonatal mortality rate.
• Number of inhabitants per Health Unit
• Poverty gap index
• Poverty depth index
• Squared poverty gap index
• Adult illiteracy rate
• Human development index

Contents

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GOM, (1999), Linhas de Acção para a Erradicação da Pobreza Absoluta, (Maputo: Ministério do Plano e Finanças).

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