Mozambique

Ratings for the Southern Africa Regional Gas Project for Mozambique were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, risk to development outcome or global environment outcome... Show More + was moderate, Bank performance was satisfactory, Borrower (of guaranteed loan) and implementing party performance was satisfactory, and Government performance was satisfactory. Some lessons learned included: a relatively small financial commitment by the Bank facilitated a much larger investment in the project. Where possible, the Bank should enter the project preparation process as early as possible. A financially strong and technically capable stakeholder (Sasol in this case) is critical to moving forward a large and cross-border project in a timely manner. The World Bank Group (WBG) (WB, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)) can collaborate in a highly effective and complementary manner- to the benefit of the project goals. Participation of the WBG in firsts in countries can be highly impactful and may pave the way for future large investments in countries with high political risks and may also provide the best long term returns. Use of International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) enclave guarantee instrument proved to be extremely effective in this context. IFC was used in a highly strategic manner to enable the government to fund its equity in the project. Packaging and sharing knowledge from such transactions within the Bank is important. By building flexibility or optionality into the original design of the project, the project was able to adapt to the changing circumstances and priorities of the Government of Mozambique (GoM) over the years. The project indicators can have been more reflective of development within the national gas and power sector. Show Less -

The development objective of the Mining and Gas Technical Assistance Project is to strengthen the capacity and governance systems of key institutions to manage the mining... Show More + and hydrocarbon sectors in Mozambique. There are five components to the project. The first component is mining governance capacity building and reform. The second component covers natural gas capacity building and governance reform. The third component is cross-cutting mining and natural gas capacity building and reforms. The fourth component focuses on cross-sectoral reforms. The fifth component provides project management and coordination. Show Less -

Agriculture and fisheries are the main pillars of Mozambique's economy, having contributed in the last few years to more than 25 percent of the gross domestic product... Show More + (GDP) and around 7 to 11 percentage points of the rate of economic growth. Agricultural development in Mozambique has been part of the government agenda because it is crucial to reducing poverty within rural zones. The long-term strategy for the agricultural sector in Mozambique focuses on improving food security and reducing poverty by supporting efforts of the smallholders, as well as the private sector, governmental agencies, and nongovernmental (NGO) agencies to improve agricultural productivity, agro-processing activities, and marketing, while sustainably exploiting natural resources. The agro-industrial sector is an important part of the agricultural sector as a whole; the food industries, beverages, and tobacco are estimated to account for about 70 percent of the overall structure of the manufacturing sector in Mozambique. Yet in Mozambique, processing activities are far behind opportunities offered by the potential diversified production. Instead of a vibrant private sector, which is considered a prerequisite for fostering economic growth and social development for poverty reduction, Mozambique has a poor agribusiness environment where most of the enterprises are micro and informal. As a result, it is still very difficult to invest in agriculture and agribusiness, to develop small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and consequently, to create new jobs. However, there is potential for many value chains to support increased post-harvest processing in Mozambique, such as horticulture, animal feed, oilseeds, and nuts. Show Less -

This paper has three primary objectives: (i) to investigate potential problems regarding Mozambique's most recent nationally representative household survey on poverty... Show More + dynamics; (ii) to assess the robustness and reliability of official poverty statistics; and (iii) to provide alternative estimates of poverty and welfare indicators in light of the methodological and analytical issues raised in areas (i) and (ii). It is determined that at least two significant weaknesses affect the official poverty-rate estimates: measurement errors in consumption data and flaws in the methodology used to calculate poverty lines (the cost-of-basic-needs approach based on provincial food bundles with entropy correction). A number of observations appear to be affected by substantial measurement errors, which severely distort the official poverty statistics. The paper provides methods to correct the consumption distribution by recalculating poverty lines based on a single national food basket -- as opposed to the current estimates, which are based on province-specific food baskets. The revised poverty statistics differ considerably from the official estimates of poverty across provinces and are far more consistent with other poverty indicators. In addition, poverty appears to be highly concentrated in certain areas, with dramatically higher rates found in Central and Northern Mozambique, as well as in rural areas overall, compared with relatively low rates in Southern Mozambique and in the country's urban centers. These findings substantially contradict the government's official poverty figures, which appear to systematically overestimate poverty rates in Mozambique's Southern provinces and urban areas while simultaneously underestimating the prevalence of poverty in the country's Central and Northern regions and in rural areas nationwide. 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 objective of the Mozambique eGovernment and Communications Infrastructure Project (MEGCIP), part of the third phase of the Regional Infrastructure Program in Africa... Show More + is to support the Recipient's efforts to contribute to lower prices for international capacity and extend the geographic reach of broadband networks and to contribute to improved efficiency and transparency through eGovernment applications. There are four components to the project. The first component of the project is enabling environment. This component will provide technical capacity building and advice to the key agencies of government having a direct role in the project. The second component of the project is connectivity. This component will include financing for connectivity in Mozambique through several subcomponents: (a) financing for the establishment or strengthening of the existing Internet Exchange Point (IXP) through technical assistance and purchase of equipment; (b) financing for equipment for the Governments' communications network; and (c) financing for equipment for the setup of the Mozambique Research and Education Network (MoRENet). The third component of the project is eGovernement applications. This component supports the Government of Mozambique's strategic flagship program identified in the national eGovernment strategy, prepared in 2006. The fourth and final component of the project is project management support. This component will consist of financing for project management related issues covering staff salaries, technical assistance, equipment and operating costs, and namely support for hiring key staff such as: (i) a project coordinator based at Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT); (ii) an Ministry of Transport and Communication (MTC) advisor to be staffed at the MTC; (iii) a lead Information technology (IT) architect, and as a minimum; (iii) one procurement manager; (iv) one financial management specialist; (v) a monitoring and evaluation specialist; (vi) a communications specialist; and (vii) environmental expertise as required. Show Less -