The National Basic Social Security Strategy is a sectoral national strategy of the Republic of Mozambique. It applies to the period 2010-2014. Its overall mission is to unify and guide the efforts of governmental and non-governmental actors in planning and implementing actions for the basic social security of the poorest and most vulnerable groups and individuals, so that it can contribute efficiently and effectively to reducing poverty and to the socio-economic development of the country. The Strategy has the following objectives: (1) to increase the coverage and impact of basic social protection interventions for the poorest and most vulnerable; (2) to increase the efficiency of the basic social protection system; and (3) to ensure the harmonisation and coordination of the various basic social protection programmes and services. In order to increase the coverage and impact of basic social protection interventions for the poorest and most vulnerable, the following actions are envisaged: (1) extending coverage of the current Food Subsidy Programme to a growing percentage of households with people unable to work; (2) revising eligibility criteria for the current Food Subsidy Programme based on the ongoing evaluations of the programme; (3) analysing possible ways of providing social transfers to households with orphans and vulnerable children; (4) ensuring a systematised mechanism for an annual review of the subsidy amount in order to ensure that its purchasing power is maintained (e.g. by indexing it to inflation) (5) preparing a Social Map covering all Government and non-governmental social services for poor and vulnerable people; (6) conducting a diagnosis of the institutional capacity of public social services that target poor and vulnerable people; (7) developing and implementing a plan for expanding and improving the quality of social services for poor and vulnerable people (based on the Social Map, the diagnosis of institutional capacity and vulnerability mapping); (8) developing a governmental and non-governmental Social Service Procedures Manual directed at poor and vulnerable people; (9) reviewing the current Direct Social Support Programme, analysing the possibility of dividing it into two distinct interventions for situations of acute vulnerability requiring an intervention. For increasing the efficiency of the basic social protection system, the following actions are provided: (1) establishment of a basic social security information system comprising the following; (2) design and implementation of a development plan for cadres that establishes mechanisms for building the capacity of the human resources involved in basic social security, especially in the direct social action area, in different fields; (3) identifying and establishing partnerships with civil society organisations to test new ways of implementing PSB programmes with the aim of developing more comprehensive and effective methods; and (4) conducting a study and establishing mechanisms (including possible partnerships with the private sector) that allow greater geographical coverage of efficiency and increase the efficiency of Basic Social Protection programmes’ distribution networks, including alternative payment solutions. Lastly, in order to ensure the harmonisation and coordination of the various basic social protection programmes and services, the following actions are included in the document: (1) creating a harmonized mechanism for identifying beneficiaries of Basic Social Security programmes; (2) recording all basic social security beneficiaries in a National Social Action System; (3) creating conditions for the Coordination Council for the Basic Social Security Subsystem, responsible for guiding, monitoring and coordinating the Basic Social Security system, to function; and (4) analysing the best way of expanding the national coordination model to provincial and district levels and promote their implementation.
Mozambique · 2012-06-01