Accelerating Poverty Reduction in Mozambique : Challenges and Opportunities
Over the past two decades Mozambique enjoyed robust and accelerating economic growth, yet strong economic progress only translated into modest poverty reduction. Not only poverty fell at slower pace than expected but the gains in income and consump...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/383501481706241435/Accelerating-poverty-reduction-in-Mozambique-challenges-and-opportunities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25757 |
| Summary: | Over the past two decades Mozambique
enjoyed robust and accelerating economic growth, yet strong
economic progress only translated into modest poverty
reduction. Not only poverty fell at slower pace than
expected but the gains in income and consumption growth are
unevenly distributed across the country and across groups of
people. Some parts of the country –especially the center and
the north– account for a disproportionate share of the poor.
Overall, urban provinces tend to have lower poverty rates
than rural provinces, particularly those in the central and
northern parts of the country. Three factors contribute to
the low equity outcomes in Mozambique: (i) unequal access to
economic opportunities across regions and income groups;
(ii) low productivity and market-based growth in
agriculture; and (iii) high vulnerability to weather shocks.
Growth could have had a much larger impact on poverty
reduction in Mozambique if its effects had not been offset
by the observed increase in inequality. Accelerating poverty
reduction requires addressing structural factors that
undermine the inclusiveness of growth. The returns to growth
have to be distributed more widely to invest in the most
isolated parts of the country in for these regions to be
able to seize the economic opportunities brought about by
economic expansion and close the gap with the rest of the
country. There is a need to deepen the investments in the
human, physical and institutional capital of the country.
Finally, given the high exposure of Mozambique to natural
disasters, it is necessary to strengthen formal and informal
risk management systems to avoid that the living standards
of the population are highly influenced by major shocks out
of their control. |
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