Situated to the south east of the African continent, Mozambique covers an area of just over 800,000 km2. It shares borders with six other countries – Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia to the north, Zimbabwe to the west, South Africa and Swaziland to the south – and has more than 2,500 km of coastline on the Indian Ocean.  



The Zambezi is the largest of the country’s 25 rivers and divides Mozambique into distinct northern and southern halves. The other 24 rivers are more-or-less equally distributed across the country.  With a tropical to sub-tropical climate, Mozambique experiences high coastal temperatures for much of the year, while the interior is warm to mild even in the cooler, dry season from April to September. The rainy season in the south is from December to March, farther north this period lengthens by a few weeks. 

illustrates average rainfall and temperature ranges for Mozambique as documented in 2012.The population of 7.6 million in 1960 grew to 26.47 million in 2014, an average population growth of approximately 2.5% per year in recent decades. The overall population density is 35 people per km2, most of which are concentrated along the coast and the fertile river valleys (World Bank, 2014). Forty five percent of the population is under the age of 15 and Mozambique’s population pyramids from 1970 to 2010 look nearly identical, reflecting a lack of change in the age structure over the last 40 years. 

The picture, however, is set to change. The total fertility rate (TFR), or the average number of children per woman over the course of her lifetime, declined from 6.2 children in 1990 to 5.7 children per woman in 2013 (Mozambique, Demographic Dividend, 2014) and the under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) fell from 226 per 1000 live births in 1990 to 97 per 1000 live births reported in the 2011 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) (Fernandes et al., 2014; Ministério de Saúde, 2011). 

 

Mozambique’s human development index (HDI) for 2012 was 0.327 – in the low human development category – positioning the country at 185 out of 187 countries and territories. Between 1980 and 2012, Mozambique’s HDI increased 51% from 0.217 to 0.327, an average annual increase of about 1.3% (UNDP, 2013).   Population distribution predictions for the year 2015 were derived from the population products shown . 

The population distribution provided at 100 m spatial resolution was resampled in ArcGIS (ver10.1 ESRI, USA) to obtain population density per km2. A population density threshold of greater than 1,000 persons per km2 was used to identify urban settlements, a threshold found to significantly influence malaria prevalence (Kabaria C, personal communication).  

 

Polygons covering an area greater than 5 km2 with population density across the polygon of >= 1,000 people per km2 were selected. These were then matched to a place name gazetteer of Mozambique (www.geonames.nga.mil/gns/) to identify 46 major urban settlements shown in slide. These include Cabo Delgado (Mocimboa da Praia, Matemo, Quirimba, Nfunvo, Pemba, Montepuez); Niassa (Lichinga, Cuamba); Zambezia (Gurue, Milange, Mocuba, Morrumbala, Quelimane, Alto Molocue); Nampula (Iapala, Nampula, Namialo, Monapo, Nacala, Nametil); Tete (Songo, Tete, Maotize); Manica (Vila de Mancia, Manica, Gondola, Chimoio); Sofala (Beira, Bue); Inhambane (Massaul, Mazaleto, Inhambane); Gaza (Chokwe, Chaimite, Lionde, Praia do Bilene); Maputo (Palmeira); Maputo (Maputo; Porto da Inhaca; Catembe; Namaacha).  


The Republic of Mozambique is an independent, sovereign, unitary and democratic state. The president of the Republic is the head of state and government of a multi-party system. The prime minister is appointed by the president. His functions include convening and chairing the council of ministers (cabinet), advising the president, assisting the president in governing the country, and coordinating the functions of the other ministers. The Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da República) comprises 250 members, elected for a five-year term by proportional representation (Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique, 2005). 

 

Following independence in 1975, Mozambique experienced an extensive period of civil war, economic mismanagement and famine. A peace deal in 1992 ended 16 years of civil war and led to considerable progress in economic development and political stability (CIA, 2017). In 2014, Mozambique’s economy continued to perform strongly with real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 7.6% and the outlook remains positive. Sustained growth is expected at 7.5% in 2015 and 8.1% in 2016. The main sectors benefiting are construction, services to enterprises, transport and communications, the financial sector and extractive industries (African Economic Outlook, 2017). 

 

The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000 catalysed a series of reforms by the government of Mozambique that led to radical shifts in policy vis-à-vis the social sectors. Policies for poverty reduction were adopted to include free education, affordable health schemes, child immunisation, malaria control, HIV/AIDS, infrastructure, etc. Both the government and its partners, including civil society and donors, endorsed and supported the MDGs and the Government of Mozambique (GoM) established clear linkages and synergies between the MDGs and the country’s long-term vision, “Agenda 2025” (Agenda 2025, 2003). The country is divided into 11 administrative provinces (províncias) and one capital city (cidade capital) which has provincial status. The provinces are subdivided into 156 districts (distritos). The districts are further divided into 405 administrative posts (postos administrativos) and then into localities (localidades) (Mozambique Information, 2015). 


According to the 1997 Law on Local Government Units (Lei dos Órgãos Locais do Estado – LOLE), the district is the “principal geographical unit for organisation and functioning of the local administration, and is the basis for planning the socioeconomic and cultural development of the Republic of Mozambique”.