Assessing urban poverty policy response in Maputo city: The case of the Income Generation Programme (IGP) and Social Benefits for Work programme (SBWP)

This paper assesses the effectiveness of two Social Protection programs, namely the Income Generation program and Social Benefits for Work program as government policy responses to alleviate urban poverty in Maputo city. It also scrutinizes the involvement of other actors in these efforts particularly the Municipal Council and NGO’s. It shows that these programmes suffer from various contextual constraints, with emphasis on those related to management such as limited coverage, deficiencies on the program design and targeting efficacy. Nevertheless, the beneficiaries’ perceptions of the gains obtained through both programs are generally positive once they experience access to basic services which in the past they could not afford. However, these gains are acquired for a short period of time, after that they get back into poverty. With regards to the other actors involvement in poverty alleviation activities in Maputo city, it is argued that it is limited and with no coordination. In this point of view and given the high level of poverty in Maputo city the paper concludes that those programs are palliative measures on alleviating urban poverty, squandering scarce public resources and doing little to promote long term development.