Paper short abstract:

This paper, applying a political settlements approach, analyses the political economy dynamics that have influenced the adoption and implementation of social protection in Mozambique.

Paper long abstract:

Social protection (SP) programmes in Mozambique has after the new millennium been developed with donor support from an initial 250,000 beneficiary households to almost 500,000 households by 2016. The expansion was secured through primarily two programmes: the Basic Social Subsidy Program (PSSB) and the Productive Social Action Program (PASP). This paper, applying a political settlements approach, analyses the political economy dynamics that have influenced the adoption and implementation of social protection in Mozambique. The paper finds that the ruling elite's commitment to social protection, has been shaped by the specific characteristics of the political settlement and is intimately related to key challenges confronting the ruling elite. The specific policies that form part of social protection as it evolved in Mozambique is a direct response to key distributional problems related to consistently high levels of poverty and key challenges related to subsidizing the growing urban populations that rioted in 2008 and 2010. Both the poverty and the riots were perceived by the ruling Frelimo government as posing a threat to the reproduction of power and thereby the political settlement. We argue that the objectives and framing of social protection have shifted over time, just as the Mozambican political settlement has changed. In contrast to other countries (like Rwanda), the Frelimo government viewed social protection predominantly as a social transfer program, but over time it also came to see it as integral to addressing key government challenges.