Mozambique: Time to focus on the protection of the most vulnerable, says IMF

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Mozambique: Time to focus on the protection of the most vulnerable, says IMF

3:37 CAT | 30 Jul 2020

in file CoM

The representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Mozambique said yesterday that, given the impact of Covid-19, the focus of Mozambican authorities should be on the protection of the most vulnerable strata rather than fiscal consolidation.

“In such a context [of Covid-19], fiscal consolidation is not the concern,” Ari Aisen said. The concern “must be the protection of the most vulnerable”, he commented during a webinar on “Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa – Mozambique: An unprecedented threat to Development”.

Aisen said that the Mozambican authorities should strengthen existing social protection mechanisms in the country in order to increase financial aid to families most affected by the pandemic.

“The amount of informality in the Mozambican economy and the negative impact of Covid-19 leads us to believe that more families are in a situation of heightened vulnerability,” he said.

The Mozambican authorities, Aisen continued, must find more efficient ways to deliver subsidies and other forms of social support to the people who need them most.

The IMF representative noted that public investment in social protection in Mozambique was proportionally higher than the level of coverage, giving scope for increased support to the most needy.

“An analysis of social protection investments shows that there is an increase in need which has not been accompanied by a rise in coverage,” Aisen said.

In the current pandemic, he continued, access to social support must be de-bureaucratised in order to extend benefits to more people.

“Most of the most needy do not have a bank account or identification documents, but they do have a mobile phone and a mobile account, and these can be used to get more help [to them],” he said.

The is no unemployment benefit In Mozambique, but there is a poverty allowance, usually paid to elderly people in rural areas.

Mozambique recorded a further 28 cases of Covid-19 between Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing the total to 1,748, with 11 fatalities, the Ministry of Health announced yesterday.

The Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 660,000 lives and infected more than 16.7 million people in 196 countries and territories worldwide, according to the French AFP press agency.

The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.

Source: Lusa