The country of Mozambique, situated in southeast Africa, is ranked as of the world’s poorest nations. Since its independence from Portugal in 1975, this country has struggled to survive as a free nation. However, poverty rates are on the decline, with the U.S. working to reduce poverty in Mozambique.

One of the main causes of Mozambique’s extreme poverty rates is that following its independence in 1975, the country endured a civil war from 1977 to 1992. This war drained the country of its national resources. Shortly after the resolution of the civil war, the United States stepped in, providing much-needed aid to the hurting country. The United States is still Mozambique’s largest bilateral donor, giving an annual $400 million towards relief measures.

The United States and Mozambique both share a commitment to improving health, education and food security for the Mozambican people, which can be seen through the success of U.S.-funded programs.

For example, in 2000, after severe floods occurred in Mozambique, the United States provided assistance to 115,000 families to rebuild their homes. In addition, the PEPFAR program, supported by the United States, also works with the Mozambican government, saving hundreds of thousands of lives from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The United States also provides for the future of the country through the Feed the Future program, educating farmers on how to develop their land to increase food production and therefore provide for their people, drastically reducing the hunger percentage.

All of these programs demonstrate the positive effects of the U.S. working to reduce poverty in Mozambique; however, there is still much that needs to be done, as the majority of the population still lives in extreme poverty. For every percentage point of economic growth between 1996 and 2009, Mozambique’s poverty rate only decreased by 0.26 percentage points. This is half of what other African countries have achieved in terms of poverty reduction rates.

The reason for this difference in numbers is because there is not an even distribution of funds among the Mozambican people. If Mozambique’s growth had been more equally shared between groups of people living throughout the country, an estimated two million additional people could have been lifted out of poverty.

Rural areas contain a much larger percentage of people living in poverty because of the difficulty in accessing relief methods provided to those in more urban settings. However, even with the uneven distribution of funds and other methods of aid, with the U.S. working to reduce poverty in Mozambique, things are looking up for the country.

Despite all of the struggles Mozambique has had to endure, its future is looking bright. Although it is ranked as having one of the world’s worst healthcare systems, the country has made significant progress in reducing mortality rates. Its economic success has also started to pick up the pace as seen in 2017, when the GDP growth rate increased 2.9 percent from the preceding quarter.

With numbers like these, it can be seen that Mozambique is slowly reducing the number of people living in poverty. However, it still relies on foreign assistance such as that from the United States, and it is vitally important to continue these relief methods.

– Adrienne Tauscheck

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