Mozambique

This report is an initial effort to develop information to identify and evaluate options for natural gas use in Mozambique. The aim is to provide the foundations for... Show More + a dynamic Gas Master Plan (GMP) to guide policy development in the gas sector in Mozambique and in this sense should be considered as a stepping stone for further analysis and studies over time to further inform policy. The study is focused on the natural gas sector and the technical and economic issues related to gas use in the Mozambique economy. While the study also considers socioeconomic, environmental, regulatory, and governance issues in connection with the development of a natural gas sector, these issues are evaluated only to the degree that they matter for natural gas development. These issues are not assessed in detail or with a view to the broader questions they inevitably raise regarding social and economic policy, developmental choices, governance, and equitable and sustainable development in Mozambique. The development of the gas sector will be driven largely by private sector decision-making, based on market and economic imperatives and where the market and financial risks are largely borne by the investors. Mozambique will nevertheless share in these risks to some extent. The author view that the GMP and the role of the Government of Mozambique (GoM) is to provide a stable, transparent regulatory, fiscal, and financial policy regime to foster development in the gas sector in a way to benefit the country as a whole. Show Less -

The objective of conducting this case study on Mozambique is to uncover the pattern of municipal Information and Communication Technology (ICT) impact that may exist... Show More + in other low-capacity countries with analogous political economy structures in relation to leveraging ICT in public sectors. The study concludes by suggesting measures to link the continent's ICT boom in citizen-based mobile telephony and internet usage with the rapid rise of public sector ICT phenomena as a promising means to plug service delivery gaps. In view of these highlights, this report stands to serve as a valuable resource guide to a wide audience of practitioners, including policy wonks, urban specialists; ICT and climate change enthusiasts, as well as social accountability activists. This report consists of five sections. Section one details the impact of climate change on Mozambique's urban poor while also providing an overview of the country's disaster response system. In view of the decentralization of much of Mozambique's ICT and other resources among municipal governments, section two sheds light on leveraging local government-level ICT towards enhancing urban climate resilience and disseminates awareness on the 'ICT- Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA)' framework. Section three describes the four ICT tools most widely being used towards climate-change adaptation, while Section 4 seeks to quantify the level to which municipal ICT growth is having an impact on urban climate resilience generally, and seeks to answer the question of whether it is having an equitable impact on the poor. Upon measuring the extent to which urban climate resilience is being enhanced and analyzing differential impact on the urban poor, section five recommends targeted reform in ICT-PARPA framework such that ICT impact is equitable for all communities, and postulates how such reform can be realized. Show Less -

Using panel data from Mozambique collected in 2007 and 2008, the authors explore the impact of the food crisis on the welfare of households living with HIV/AIDS. The... Show More + analysis finds that there has been a real deterioration of welfare in terms of income, food consumption, and nutritional status in Mozambique between 2007 and 2008, among both HIV and comparison households. However, HIV households have not suffered more from the crisis than others. Results on the evolution of labor force participation suggest that initiation of treatment and better services in health facilities have counter-balanced the effect of the crisis by improving the health of patients and their labor force participation. In addition, the authors look at the effect of the change in welfare on the frequency of visits to a health facility of patients and on their treatment outcomes. Both variables can proxy for adherence to treatment. This is a particularly crucial issue as it affects both the health of the patient and public health, because sub-optimal adherence leads to the development of resistant forms of the virus. The paper finds no effect of the change in welfare on the frequency of visits, but does find that people who experienced a negative income shock also experienced a reduction or a slower progression in treatment outcomes. Show Less -

The dramatic increases in world food and fuel prices during 2007 and early 2008 may set back Mozambique's considerable advances in poverty reduction during the past... Show More + decade. This study assesses the impact of higher fuel and food prices at both household and macroeconomic levels, and also considers policy options to mitigate some of the negative impacts of higher prices. Rising world prices certainly represents a negative terms-of-trade shock for Mozambique, since the country imports almost all of its fuel and is a net importer of food. The report is structured in six sections. Section two presents information on the extent of international food and fuel price increases and their transmission to local markets in Mozambique. Section three presents household-level analysis focused on the first order impact of the food price increases. Section four complements previous sections by examining the impact of higher food and fuel prices within a general equilibrium framework. Section five discusses the likely impact of alternative policy options in the short and long term. Section six summarizes and concludes. Show Less -

HIV and AIDS are having a devastating effect in Sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 10.8 million deaths estimated to have occurred in the year 2000, HIV caused over 20 percent... Show More + of them (Jamison et al. 2006). The annual toll of AIDS deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to grow, despite progress in some countries. While mortality rates have been reduced through prevention interventions, counseling, testing, support, and treatment, the potential for nutrition to contribute to a decline in HIV- and AIDS-related morbidity and mortality has neither kept pace nor lived up to its potential. Since 2000 the World Bank has financed 34 HIV/AIDS projects, including five sub-regional projects, with commitments in excess of US$1.3 billion. The approach has been to provide assistance for prevention, care and support, treatment, and capacity building, with a large portion of the resources channeled through civil society organizations (with more than 50,000 such interventions). Additionally, through the Poverty Reduction Strategy process and debt forgiveness, resources are being mainstreamed to continue the fight against HIV and AIDS. As the Bank's program has evolved, and with increased knowledge about the importance of nutrition to effective responses to HIV and AIDS, the Bank has recognized the need to better understand how to integrate nutrition into programs for HIV and AIDS (and how to integrate considerations about HIV and AIDS into nutrition programs). Show Less -

There are four sections to this paper. The first section focuses on the purpose and functions of Education Management Information System (EMIS). Essentially, an EMIS... Show More + is a data collection, storage, retrieval, processing and dissemination system that is specifically designed for use by decision makers and administrators to plan and manage education systems in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner. Normally, EMIS is an information centre in a Ministry of Education and responsible for the use of information for policy planning, planning and implementation, decision making, monitoring and evaluation of the education of the education system (Wako, 2003). Having defined the purpose and location of EMIS, the second section identifies important issues for managing and operating an EMIS, including strategies for data collection and analysis, the significant role that information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure can play in supporting these processes and the imperative of ensuring that outputs are disseminated and utilized. Then, the third section investigates the degree to which such practices are occurring in Bangladesh, Ghana, Mozambique and Nigeria, and what lessons can be learned from the way each manages and operates their EMIS, including what difficulties were experienced and how these were overcome. Finally, the author elaborate ways forward for EMIS and concrete steps that can be taken by donors and planners to ensure greater sustainability. Show Less -

This study provides the analytic input for policy dialogue with government and relevant private sector by examining the constraints and challenges that undermine growth... Show More + of tourism in Mozambique. It outlines actionable measures that can help to catalyze tourism growth in the country, and presents recommendations for removing investment climate constraints that undermine the competitiveness of firms in the travel and hospitality industries. By focusing on constraints for each activity within the value chain of a tourism product, the study provides comprehensive insights that complement previous and ongoing work for tourism development in Mozambique (such as Trans Frontier Conservation Areas, Investment Climate Assessment and studies of institutional marketing). Show Less -

Mozambique is a country in development. Rapid changes are taking place in the socioeconomic sector. Mega projects are being implemented successfully like the establishment... Show More + of Mozambique nearby the capital Maputo with an installed capacity of producing 506,000 tons of primary aluminum; the major ports are being privatized; Mozambique Railways is still in the process of privatization; and Mozambique Customs is run by Crown Agents. Also important steps have been made to liberalize external trade. At the same time, however, the existing regulatory framework for business development and trade activities still facilitates excessive bureaucracy, red tape and corruption. This, together with a backlog in maintenance of transport infrastructure, makes it extremely hard for Mozambican producers to compete on international markets. The objective of this Trade and Transport Facilitation Audit (TTFA) is to establish a diagnostic, as comprehensive as possible, on the situation in Mozambique in terms transport costs and efficiency related to external trade and international transportation services providing an integrated approach. Ultimately the audit aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of supply chain management constraints in Mozambique irrespective of their cause: governance, regulation, private sector practices, and organization. Show Less -

This survey was designed to research a number of basic issues, including the composition of the manufacturing sector, sources of growth, major impediments to growth,... Show More + the composition of the labor force, and accessibility to finance in Mozambique. A team of World Bank staff and local consultants visited and conducted interviews with almost 150 manufacturing firms of all sizes in most parts of the country, covering a number of topics, including discussions of business start up, the collection of basic accounting data, and discussions of what business services the firms would like. The interviewers also spoke with a sample of workers from each of the firms. The survey was similar to ones conducted by the Regional Program on Enterprise Development (RPED) in seven other sub-Saharan African countries, and it is thus possible to compare some of the results in Mozambique with similar countries. Although there are severe impediments to growth, including lack of finance, a shortage of skilled labor and poor infrastructure, real growth rates in the manufacturing sector in Mozambique have averaged more than 6 percent in recent years and appear poised to increase. The business environment is often cited as a particular problem, but we find that firms are extremely confident about the future, much more so than in other African countries. Mozambican businessmen are not only confident about their own future, but also that the government will continue its reform policies and the country as a while will prosper. This paper begins by providing a description of the sample, which is then followed by a brief overview of growth and changes in the manufacturing sector since colonial times. Next what firms perceive as their major business problems is discussed. This is followed by discussions of manufacturing firms' access to finance, the labor market and infrastructure problems. Finally, a short section explores the business services firms in Mozambique need. Show Less -