The Child Grant for children aged 0-2 in poor and vulnerable households forms part of the Basic Social Subsidy Programme (PSSB), within the second national social protection strategy, ENSSB II, and was piloted from 2018 to 2021 by INAS, with technical and financial support from UNICEF via the UNJP.
Based on the positive results from the pilot and strong donor support, the Government decided to scale up the Child Grant. The programme is being expanded gradually, prioritising provinces with high rates of poverty and malnutrition. Between 2022-2024 the government plans to reach about 250,000 families with children aged 0-2 years. With the current funding available, the first phase of the Child Grant expansion includes expansion to 28 districts across Nampula, Cabo Delgado and Zambezia provinces. The programme will be implemented with support from UNICEF (to reach 46,000 children in Nampula and Cabo Delgado).
UNICEF made substantial progress in strengthening the work on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). Besides conducting eight trainings for all programme implementation staff at the central, provincial and district level with 216 participants in total and organizing briefings with delegations, UNICEF also had two high-level meetings with the Director of INAS to ensure ownership and understanding of PSEA. An action plan for PSEA was drafted by UNICEF in November 2022 to ensure the area is streamlined across programme components.
The Care Component
During 2022, the SBCC package on nutrition, WASH and care practices (based on Pacote de Intervenções de Nutrição), as well as the general programme communication material, was updated by UNICEF in collaboration with INAS. The update seeks to improve sensitisation and delivery by programme stakeholders based on the recommendations from the Process evaluation of the Child Grant pilot and introduce critical messages of PSEA, which was not explicit in the previous material.
As of December 2022, 1,127 caregivers had been registered in Lalaua in the triage database, reaching 40 per cent of the target for the district. By March 2023, 242 (18 per cent) of these families had been referred to case management services after presenting child protection risks during the triage, such as child marriage (52 per cent), early pregnancy (77 per cent), Intimate Partner Violence or violence against children. In Mecuburi district, 720 caregivers were registered in January 2023 and entered the triage database, pending the case selection process.
Consolidating M&E and systems linkages
The International Labour Organization (ILO) provided technical support to strengthen the governance and administration of basic social security institutions, namely MGCAS and INAS, in planning, M&E and statistics. Two National Planning Meetings (RNP in the Portuguese acronym) were organized to assist these governmental institutions with support from the UNJP. The RNPs constitute a crucial moment of institutional reflection for enhancing the efficiency in implementing social protection programmes to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable populations in Mozambique.
The second round of the spot checks exercise took place from 6th to 17th July 2022. It aimed to assess the status and situation of processes and procedures for implementing basic social security programs, notably the Basic Social Allowance Program (PSSB). The delegations selected for this second application were Inhambane and Vilanculos in the South Region and Chimoio and Barué in the Central Region. In each delegation, 72 beneficiaries were randomly selected to participate in the surveys and interviews. On the recommendation of ILO, INAS invited the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to participate in the exercise to engage it in policy discussions around coverage expansion and the multiplier effect of social protection programmes in the local economy. This time around, small-business owners at the community level were also interviewed, as the assessment inquired whether social assistance programmes have impacted the consumption of goods in local shops and the overall economy at the district level. An assessment report of this second round was prepared based on the data gathered in the field, identifying main obstacles in implementation, such as challenges related to targeting, payments, dissemination and communication, grievances and complaints mechanisms, the management information system, M&E at the delegation level, and e-INAS. INAS and MGCAS elaborated a series of recommendations for the improvement of processes and procedures to streamline the implementation of the basic social security programmes. The report recommended that:
•INAS delegations should define mechanisms to carry out a reasonable number of home visits to beneficiaries and determine a frequency that has to be included in the annual plan of activities
•INAS delegations should be reinforced through the provision of vehicles
•e-INAS should be updated to give more autonomy to delegations and improve statistical maps
•INE delegations should be engaged to support INAS delegations in feeding indicators with reliable data
•Continuous dissemination of PSSB should be carried out in close contact with local structures, reinforcing and emphasizing the criteria that guide prioritization and the expectations of beneficiaries.
•Civil society organizations, grassroots community organizations, local structures and communities in general should be involved to facilitate the dissemination of programs.
MOZMOD Microsimulation Model
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) convened with ILOs technical and financial support the second edition of the technical retreat on MOZMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model for Mozambique. It aimed at consolidating Mozambican State institutions' continuous process of capacity building on MOZMOD and enhancing evidence-based policy-making regarding social protection programmes and policies. In 2022, 17 representatives (14 men and three women) from Government institutions took part in the event, namely from MEF, the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), INAS, the National Institute of Social Providence (INPS), the Tax Authority (AT) and INE. The group modelled and analysed three reform scenarios, namely, the impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on household consumption in Mozambique due to basic goods prices increase , the effects of VAT reform on poverty and inequality, and the impact of the coverage and adequacy expansion of PSSB to eligible households .
