Mozambique is one of the world\’s poorest countries. Despite its impressive economic growth rates and the encouraging development progress made by the government in recent years, poverty continues to be severe and widespread. According to the national household survey conducted in 2008-2009, the number of Mozambicans living in absolute poverty had been reduced to 54 per cent from 70 per cent in 1997. However, the vast majority of the rural population still lives on less than US$1.25 a day and lacks basic services such as access to safe water, health facilities and schools.

Poverty is still predominantly a rural phenomenon in Mozambique. More than 70 per cent of poor households live in rural areas. Farming is their main source of food and income, but agricultural productivity is low. Farmers and fishers generally make enough to meet their households\’ basic food requirements, with a small surplus for sale in some cases. Incomes from both farming and fishing are meagre, and most of the rural population survives at subsistence level.

The country\’s low agricultural productivity is the result of a lack of appropriate technologies and supports. In addition, produce markets are generally distant, unreliable and uncompetitive for smallholder farmers, who depend on traditional farming methods, low-yield seed varieties and manual cultivation techniques. Alternative sources of income outside agriculture are few. In times of scarcity, poor rural people have little to buffer them from food insecurity.

Within rural communities in Mozambique, women are particularly disadvantaged. They have considerably less access to education than men and, therefore, fewer skills. Health care is inadequate, and the number of women who die in childbirth is high.

Most rural women work in agriculture and play a crucial role in growing food crops and generating income for their families. Yet they have little access to, or control over, productive resources. Although the 1997 Land Law affirms that women should enjoy equal access to land, many women are unaware of their legal rights and those rights are not enforced in practice. At the same time, the number of women who head their households is rising rapidly. These women have limited land to farm and limited food security, and are highly vulnerable.

The central and northern provinces of Mozambique have greater agricultural potential, more fertile soil and more abundant rainfall than other parts of the country, and they generally produce agricultural surpluses. Moving from the central to the southern provinces, the climate becomes drier, the soil is poorer and natural disasters such as droughts and floods occur more frequently. These areas – together with coastal communities, which suffer extreme isolation – are the poorest in the country.

Overall, poverty in rural Mozambique is marked by isolation, inadequate infrastructure and the consequent lack of access to goods and services. The road network is in very poor condition, for example, and only about 60 per cent of rural people have access to safe water. Rural poverty is also closely related to lack of access to health care and education. Although the situation has improved over time, significantly more progress will be required to attain the health and education-related Millennium Development Goals and improve access to other social services.

War, disease and natural disasters.

In the decades since it gained independence, Mozambique has struggled through a series of calamities that have aggravated poverty levels throughout the country, especially in rural areas.

The Mozambican civil war lasted for 16 years, leaving most rural infrastructure damaged or destroyed and large portions of arable land infested with landmines. Both the conflict and subsequent floods and drought forced large numbers of displaced persons to migrate to urban and coastal areas. The impact on the environment has been considerable, resulting in land desertification and the pollution of inland and coastal waters in certain areas.

Poor rural households are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as droughts and floods that periodically beset the southern and central areas of Mozambique. In the wake of such events, they are immediately exposed to the threat of food insecurity since they have few income-generating alternatives to agriculture.

The prevalence of the HIV/AIDS virus in Mozambique – with 11 per cent of the population currently living with HIV – is a further point of vulnerability for poor rural households, aggravating poverty and malnutrition levels. The virus affects the most productive household members and drains already meagre resources, which are used to pay for medical fees and other care.

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Tung Hoang and Sharon White working as a team on QPE Wellness Fashion And More and they have health blog and affiliate marketing for Amazon and many other companies at http://qpeshop.blogspot.ca/

Tung Hoang and Sharon White working as a team on QPE Wellness Fashion And More and they have health blog and affiliate marketing for Amazon and many other companies at http://qpeshop.blogspot.ca/

Author Bio: Tung Hoang and Sharon White working as a team on QPE Wellness Fashion And More and they have health blog and affiliate marketing for Amazon and many other companies at http://qpeshop.blogspot.ca/

Category: Marketing
Keywords: hunger, poverty , Mozambique, charity, fundraising