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   The 1999 Mozambique National Human Development Report is the product of partnership between the United Nations Development Programme country office in Mozambique, the Maputo office of SARDC and Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. Published in English and Portuguese.

    One of the most publicised myths has always been that southern Mozambique went to the beach while the central and northern parts of the country toiled to feed, clothe and educate the country’s 17 million inhabitants.

    The 1999 edition of Mozambique’s National Human Development Report shows that regional imbalances exist but the idea that southern Mozambique is a prosperous enclave in a sea of poverty is a myth invented to pursue political agendas.

    The new report is divided into six chapters. The first chapter discusses the conceptual, methodological and statistical framework and tracks the trends in human development in the country between 1994 and 1999. Chapter two discusses the similarities and differences in human development as well as the situation of poverty in the different regions of the country.

    Chapter three deals with the disaggregation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by province and region. Chapter four discusses the role of wage labour in survival strategies, while Chapter five considers the economic and social impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Mozambique. Chapter six is devoted to main conclusions and pointers for future research. The report closes with an appendix of up-to-date statistical annex.

    The main innovation is found in the report’s subtitle: “Economic Growth and Human Development: Progress, Obstacles and Challenges” which breaks new intellectual ground. It provides an up-to-date statistical base disaggregated by region and, where possible, by gender.

    The report’s main contribution is the estimation of the share of each administrative region in Mozambique in GDP for the first time.

    The results are startling: it confirms that Maputo, the capital city, is indeed living large, but it is working relatively harder, statistically speaking. The report shows that while southern Mozambique, comprising the provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane and Maputo City, contributed to 47.6 percent of GDP in 1998, it is Maputo City that made the difference: the city contributed 34.3 percent of GDP, while the combined contribution of the other three provinces was 13.3 percent.

    This means the one million people who live and work in the capital city statistically produce as much wealth as 8.6 million people or half of the population of Mozambique.

    In contrast, the combined share of GDP in central Mozambique, Zambézia, Tete, Sofala and Manica, was 31.4 percent while that of northen Mozambique which groups Nampula, Niassa and Cabo Delgado provinces was estimated at 21 percent.

    Although Mozambique has a high incidence of poverty – 69.4 percent — the poverty is not evenly distributed nor does it fit into the myth of a prosperous south and indigent centre and north.

    While Maputo city has the lowest poverty incidence at 47.8 percent, the second lowest is in Cabo Delgado with 57.4 percent.

    The highest incidence of poverty is in the central province of Sofala, with 87.9 percent, followed by Inhambane with 82.6 percent and Tete with 82.3 percent. In fact, the southern provinces of Maputo and Gaza have a higher incidence of poverty than the northern province of Niassa.

    The report places particular emphasis on the likely impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which if not tackled now, will have a negative impact on development. The report warns that, with a 14 percent prevalence among the adult population, Mozambique already faces a high level of infection. Current projections show the disease will increase rapidly, reaching 20 percent by 2010.