Inclusive growth in Mozambique – scaling-up research and capacity
Read more on the programme website, available in English and Portuguese.
The central goal of this collaborative programme is to support inclusive growth in Mozambique — growth that substantially improves the living standards of the country’s population over the long term.
To address ongoing challenges and make real progress, two Mozambican institutions — the Ministry of Economics and Finance, and the University Eduardo Mondlane — join forces together with two institutions with extensive international networks and experience, UNU-WIDER and the University of Copenhagen.
Together the leadership and staff of the four partner institutions have decades of experience in generating the evidence necessary for effective policy formulation, designing actual policies, and capacity-building. Joint efforts are carried out with the aim of increasing analytical capabilities and strengthening policy-making in the country. Through the project, partners work to seize new opportunities, while scaling-up past efforts and aiming for major broad-based impact on the welfare of the Mozambican people.
Key working areas:
employment creation and protection of vulnerable groups
maintaining long-term macroeconomic balance
furthering structural transformation
improving socioeconomic information systems for monitoring and evaluation
Background
Two decades have passed since democratic elections ushered in a new era in Mozambique. In that period, a great deal has been accomplished with nearly all development indicators registering improvements, often substantial, relative to their position in the mid-1990s. Progress has nevertheless brought new challenges.
In the early post-war period, the development task was comparatively simple. The overriding aims were to rebuild social and economic infrastructure, embed macroeconomic stability, and promote both domestic and foreign investment. As many of these post-conflict goals have been realized, the complexity of policy issues facing government has increased exponentially, reflecting the surge in the breadth and depth of economic, social, and political activities.
There is a strong potential for the country to continue registering rapid economic progress in years to come. Mozambique clearly has the possibility of leaping to middle-income status from both economic and social perspectives within the next two decades. However, it is not a foregone conclusion that this potential will be grasped. Research and further capacity are critical to setting down the right path.
Effective social protection programmes that meet local needs can significantly enhance wellbeing and break the cycle of structural poverty among the...
After decades of war, Mozambique experienced sustained economic growth and poverty reduction from the mid-1990s. However, these positive dynamics started to revert from 2015. Meanwhile, inequality stagnated in the period 1996/97–2008/09, before...
Mozambique ranks in the bottom 20 of the human development index, with nearly two-thirds of its population (18.9 million people) living below the USD...
THIS ARTICLE IS ON EARLY VIEW | This study examines the impact of digital labor-market platforms on jobs outcomes using a randomized encouragement design embedded in a longitudinal survey of Mozambican technical-vocational college graduates. We...
High youth unemployment rates and long school-to-work transition times pose a threat to low-income countries’ sustainable growth prospects. Using a randomized control trial experiment conducted in Mozambique, we find strong evidence that providing...
We examine the long-term impact of forced labour on individual risk behaviour and economic decisions. For that, we focus on a policy of coercive cotton cultivation enforced in colonial Mozambique between 1926 and 1961. We combine archival sources...
Budget reliability is the first pillar of Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA). In this study, we construct an expansion of the PEFA government response accuracy indicator and test its decomposition, with an application to the...
UNU-WIDER is hiring a Senior Research Fellow in Maputo, Mozambique. As Senior Research Fellow you would lead and contribute to the research and management of our exciting programme on Inclusive Growth in Mozambique (IGM), which builds critical...
ARTICLE IS ON EARLY VIEW | Digital labour platforms have grown five-fold over the past decade, enabling significant expansion of gig work worldwide. We interrogate the critique that these platforms tend to amplify aggregate shocks for registered...
Biased beliefs about future labor-market earnings are commonplace. Based on a longitudinal survey of graduate work transitions in Mozambique, this study assesses the contribution of employment mismatches to a large positive gap between expected (ex...
Following the abolition of slavery, various forms of compulsory labour were adopted by colonial powers to develop their economies. This paper analyses the contemporary consequences of compulsory cotton production—a forced labour system that operated...
Using a unique panel survey of final-year undergraduates at six of the largest universities in Mozambique, we study the wage premium associated with completing an undergraduate degree. Conditional on a very rich set of controls, including pre-degree...
Using publicly available databases and drawing on a wide range of indicators, this paper reviews the institutional performance of Mozambique across seven broad categories: rule of law and judicial independence; voice and freedom of expression...