Mozambique Social Protection Assessment - Review of Social Assistance Programs and Social Protection Expenditures

This assessment shows that Mozambique social protection system is developing. While programs to address most of the risks identified exist, there are still major gaps. Poor families with children are not adequately supported, there is no significant youth program, and subsistence farmers and other workers are not properly protected against recurrent shocks. The government spends a considerable amount of its resources on social protection but most are absorbed by untargeted subsidies and pensions that benefit only a few. This assessment suggests that it will be necessary to address three mutually complimentary issues: developing effective mechanisms to maximize the impact of social protection on reducing poverty; rationalizing public expenditures while filling existing program gaps; and strengthening institutional arrangements. In order to address the multiple challenges Mozambique faces to support particularly vulnerable groups and reduce extreme poverty and food insecurity, the report proposes a gradual approach framed in the existing social protection strategy approved by the Government in 2010.