Greater Maputo Research Articles

The Indifference of Transport: Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo

States in the Global South have consistently invested in large-scale, vanity infrastructure projects, which are often not used by the majority of their residents. Using a mixed-method and comparative approach with findings from Greater Maputo, Mozambique, and the Gauteng City-Region exposes how internationally-supported and expensive transport projects do not meet the needs of lower-income urban residents, and meanwhile, widespread, everyday modes of commuting such as trains, paratransit, and pathways for walking deteriorate. State-led development thus often generates an infrastructural landscape characterised by “ruin” and “indifference.” These choices are anachronistic, steeped in a desire for a modernist-inspired future and in establishing narratives of control. In the cases of Gauteng and Maputo, whether or not the infrastructure is “successfully” implemented, these choices have resulted in a distancing of the state from the majority of urban residents.

The growth of different spaces of middle-classness in Greater Maputo: A methodological approach for assessing processes of this urban transformation

In Sub-Saharan Africa, following recent macro-economic expansion, the growth of what was a relatively small middle-class has had a significant effect on urban development. In Mozambique, middle-class growth is still difficult to evaluate, since quantitative data and related research in this domain are limited. However, there have been considerable changes in urban discourse and development praxis in the country: measures directed to middle-class groups have gained more preponderance in housing strategies and land use planning activity; and, in Greater Maputo, urban development related to the growth of middle-class has become more visible.The identification and analysis of ongoing spatial transformation related to such urban discourses and praxis, and their impact on the majority of the population with lower incomes, is hampered by the still vague understanding of the middle-class in this context. This paper reflects on the possibilities and limitations of a methodological approach to identify middle-classness based on a spatial proxy, which was developed to analyse the peri-urban transformations on Greater Maputo associated with the growth of the middle-class (2016–2018). The paper argues that this methodology can potentially provide an understanding of how spatial manifestations of middle-classness can be identified and thus permit evaluation of their influence on urban transformation.

2020年コロナ禍のモザンビーク――マプト都市圏のインフォーマルな越境貿易業者（ICBT）の視点から――

2020年コロナ禍のモザンビーク――マプト都市圏のインフォーマルな越境貿易業者（ICBT）の視点から――

The regulation of onsite sanitation in Maputo, Mozambique

Poor quality onsite sanitation causes drinking water contamination and diseases in cities in sub-Saharan Africa. In this article, we consider to what extent regulation reduces onsite sanitation-related health and environmental risks. We examined regulatory standards and how they are enforced in Greater Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Standards for the construction of pit latrines and management of faecal sludge are incomplete. Reforms in the sanitation sector complicate the enforcement of standards. Responsibilities have not been clearly divided between the organisations in charge of regulation. We are sceptical that regulation can be effectively implemented in lower-income areas without a (cross-)subsidy mechanism.

Supplementary File: Inferencing Human Spatiotemporal Mobility in Greater Maputo via Mobile Phone Big Data Mining

Supplementary File: Inferencing Human Spatiotemporal Mobility in Greater Maputo via Mobile Phone Big Data Mining

Large Enterprises Neglect Supporting SMEs in Mozambique

<p><em>It is globally accepted that support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at their birth and during growth is essential to nurture them in order to avoid premature deaths. Support to SMEs can come in many forms, but large enterprises support to SMEs, especially manufacturing ones is crucial to enable them to enhance their organizational structure, adoption of new technology and gaining financial stability. The objective of this research was to find out the impact of large firms support to SMEs and how the two sectors interact in the Mozambican economy. </em><em>Using a sample of SMEs from Greater Maputo to represent the country as a whole, the study was carried out</em><em> involving three sectors, manufacturing, services and commerce sub-sectors. The research used quantitative methodology applying face-to-face questionnaires, based on structured close ended questions. The study found that there was very little support to SMEs coming from large firm in Mozambique. It was recommended that more incentives and encouragements be given to large firms in order to increase their participation in SMEs development and growth in the country.</em></p>

Primary factors threatening survival of SMEs in Mozambique

There is no dispute that entrepreneurship is critical for spurring entrepreneurs into launching small businesses to solve the perennial problem of youth unemployment. The prevailing viewpoint has therefore postulated on the fact that only the lack of entrepreneurship is to blame for the observed paucity of business start-ups to address the scourge of unemployment in Mozambique. This paper is based on a research that was carried out in Greater Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, involving a sample of 485 SMEs chosen using random sampling strategy. A face to face interview was conducted using structured, close-ended questionnaires to collect the primary data. The research was carried out applying quantitative methodology, using descriptive statistics and inferential research design, emphasising on frequencies and percentages as instruments of data management. The study revealed that the main problem of the start-up, growth and sustainability of SMEs was in fact inadequacy in competitiveness rather than the lack of entrepreneurship per se. The paper therefore offered recommendations on the appropriate solutions of encouraging the spirit of competitiveness within SMEs so as to deal with the scourge of youth unemployment in Mozambique.Keywords: Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship, small and medium enterprises, SMEs

(In)formality: the meshwork of water service provisioning

Cities in developing countries have for many decades been characterized by the co‐existence of different service provision modalities. These modalities usually include a formal water utility and an array of small‐scale private or community‐based service providers. In recent years, the topic of informality in water provisioning has been subject to an upsurge in interest of both policy makers and academics. Frequently, literature on the topic distinguishes between informal providers and formal providers suggesting that a provider belongs to either a formal or informal domain. By highlighting the infrastructure, financing, and regulatory institutions of small‐scale service provisioning in Greater Maputo, Mozambique, this article illustrates how informality and formality are interdependent and permeate throughout the water provisioning process creating a meshwork of service provisioning. Actors involved in service provisioning embody multiple identities and use these identities in various sites of governance in order to develop their water business. By adopting this approach to informality, it becomes impossible to distinguish convincingly between formal and informal providers. Instead, it leads to a focus on water provisioning rather than providers, in which informality and formality traverse through the service provision process. WIREs Water 2015, 2:31–36. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1056This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance

Unleashing Entrepreneurs or Controlling Unruly Providers? The Formalisation of Small-scale Water Providers in Greater Maputo, Mozambique

The existing legal and policy framework regulating water service provision in Greater Maputo, Mozambique appears fixated on the official service areas. In doing so it inadequately addresses the geographically varied service provision modalities which characterise the city. We argue that the predominant legal and policy framework does little to support development of improved services in areas unserved by the formal utility. Although ad hoc measures recognising small-scale providers as a temporary alternative to service provision by a formal utility have been implemented, these measures appear designed to increase control over these providers rather than support the service delivery capacity of small-scale providers.

Men Doing “Women's Work”: Masculinity and Gender Relations among Street Vendors in Maputo, Mozambique

Gender inequality in sub-Saharan urban settings is perpetuated through the differences in men's and women's positions in the labor market. However, rising unemployment and increasing informalization of the economy that result from both the demographic structure and the structural adjustment reforms undermine men's economic advantage by pushing them into low-income and low-prestige “women's” occupations, such as street commerce. Men's entry into such niches of the labor market leads to both de-gendering and re-gendering of the workplace, which in turn questions the broader gender hierarchy and stereotypes and transforms gender relations. I analyze these occupational dynamics and their profound implications for gender identity and relations drawing primarily on in-depth interviews conducted with men street vendors in Greater Maputo, Mozambique, in 1999. The analysis of the qualitative data is complemented with insights from surveys carried out in Mozambique in the second half of the 1990s.

Men's Talk About “Women's Matters”

The place of men in reproductive and contraceptive changes and the role of informal social interaction in these processes have become central themes in recent research on fertility change in sub-Saharan Africa and other developing regions. These two themes, however, have been treated separately in the literature, and this study bridges them by examining men's informal communication on family planning matters through a gender lens. This analysis, based on qualitative data collected in Greater Maputo, Mozambique, indicates that although men's communication on these matters is limited in comparison to women's communication, it nonetheless plays an important role in the formation of men's reproductive and contraceptive attitudes and preferences. Gender ideology emerges as a powerful delimiter of men's communication circles and of the information transmitted in those circles. The author argues that gender barriers in peer communication affect individuals' perceptions of reproductive and contraceptive matters and their corresponding preferences and decisions.

Negotiating Through Reproductive Change: Gendered Social Interaction and Fertility Regulation in Mozambique

This paper addresses the role of informal social interaction in reproductive changes. Using data from individual and focus groups interviews conducted with men and women in suburban areas of Greater Maputo Mozambique it shows how people gain fertility-related and family planning-related information and form their corresponding attitudes and preferences through verbal and non-verbal exchanges with others. This social interaction on reproductive matters is gendered: men and womens interaction circuits rarely overlap focus on different aspects of fertility and family-planning and construe them in distinctly gendered ways. Informal social interaction therefore affects marital partners reproductive choices not only by complementing fertility-related information disseminated through formal channels but also through accentuating and negotiating gender differences in reproductive goals and expectations. (authors)

Women's Choice Between Indigenous and Western Contraception in Urban Mozambique

ABSTRACT Research on women's reproductive behavior and family planning in developing countries is usually focused on western contraceptive methods and rarely addresses indigenous contraception, such as herbs, amulets, and charms that are believed to prevent pregnancy. However, the available data demonstrate that indigenous contraception is widely known, and its prevalence often rivals that of western methods. Based on qualitative data collected in Greater Maputo, Mozambique, in 1993, this study explores and analyzes women's choice between western methods-mainly oral contraceptives, intra-uterine devices and injectables-available from state-run family planning clinics, and indigenous contraception, a combination of herbal and magical medicine, provided by traditional healers. The study demonstrates that women's choice between the two types of methods is determined by their socio-demographic characteristics and cultural background, access to these methods, perceptions of the effectiveness and undesirable side-effects of these methods, and by restrictions imposed by the providers. Although indigenous methods may not compete with western contraception in the long run, their present-day persistence warrants the attention of scholars and policymakers who intend to integrate women's concerns and constraints in the design of family planning systems.

Economic security, informational resources, and women's reproductive choices in urban Mozambique.

Reproductive changes in sub-Saharan Africa are contingent upon women's socioeconomic conditions and informational and cultural resources. This study focuses on socioeconomic and cultural determinants and correlates of the intention to stop childbearing and of contraceptive use among urban women in Mozambique. It uses data from a survey of 1,585 married women conducted in Greater Maputo in 1993, and it employs logistic regression for multivariate analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that although the stopping intention and contraceptive use are interrelated and similarly affected by such factors as education or the area of residence, the intention to stop childbearing is mainly driven by women's perception of their material conditions and socioeconomic security, while contraceptive use is largely a product of social diffusion and the legitimization of innovative, Western-origin information and technologies. The study proposes that these findings may help explain the unique features of the fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa.