Paper Sample on Inequalities in Mozambique

Introduction

Mozambique is a scenic and vibrant country in Southeastern Africa, with around 30 million citizens. It is among the African countries, which are leading to the level of inequality. In the early 1990s, towards the end of the post-colonial conflict, Mozambique was recognized as the poorest country in the whole world (Hanlon, 2010). After that, it experienced essential economic growth, which reduced the initial level of poverty. However, this growth started taking charge as a cause of inequality. As a result, this has played a great role in preventing poverty reduction and might raise sustainability concerns even in the country's current growth path. The inequality increase in Mozambique has also gone in line with the increased dualization of the national resource and the increased population of people with higher education levels working in private sectors (Arndt & Mahrt, 2017).

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Gender Inequality

Considering gender inequality in the country, women have been underrepresented in contract farming agreements between private firms and smallholders in rural areas. However, this agreement was developed to increase income to all poor households in rural areas. Besides, the contract hurt women since there was a low probability of extending services to women (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). This also became a potential root for gender inequality.

Mozambique has high female employment rates, but they normally work in small family firms, whereby they are unremunerated. Therefore, women in the country lag behind the growth of the non-subsistence sector, thus lowering the overall growth of the economy. This is simply because; women have low persistence power of lower human capital as compared to men. Such power is measured in terms of illiteracy, attained education, proficiency in the Portuguese language, and the differences in employment probabilities between married men and women. The children's health in Mozambique is determined a lot by their mothers (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). Their health is significantly higher when their mother does justify the existence of violence from their fathers. This is a sign of women's empowerment in the country. The higher the level of education acquired by mothers in Mozambique, the better their children's health and education. This is simply because educated parents are more enlightened and knows the purpose of getting their children educated. The health of children in the country tends to be higher among females living in urban areas and southern regions. This is because these areas are mostly developed, and parents can acquire healthy diets for their children. As a result, this is another source of inequality between the people living in rural areas and urban and southern parts. Mozambique has a very high level of poverty compared to other countries in Sub-Saharan African- Tanzania, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. The rate of poverty in Mozambique signifies the role of inequalities on various deprivations among the poor. Income inequality in the country is also very high. The richest 10% of individuals in the country account for 40% of the national income, while the poorest 10% account for 2-7 %( Hanlon, 2010).

The increased rate of inequality in Mozambique has played a great role in limiting the development of the overall country over the last few decades. The inequality rate has weakened the relationship between people from different social classes, thus hurting society. The increased rate of inequality in the country may continue hurting the economy's growth by hindering different individuals from utilizing their full potential in work. If this trend continues, the future of inequality within the country can become even worse in future. Therefore, every citizen should take responsibility for future inequality at their hands (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). They should work effectively towards reducing inequality, with the government's help, through determination and dedication to their country. In return, this will eventually makes Mozambique a free country from inequality.

Key Political Issue

The leading political factors leading to inequality within the country is globalization. The competition that the country faces from other countries, together with the reduced rate of trade barriers, has reduced the prospects for Mozambique citizens with no advanced education, skills, and experience(van der Berg et al., 2017). Furthermore, despite the level of unemployment in Mozambique increasing, the government is still importing labor from other countries. For example, competent people within the country have the knowledge and skills to build roads. However, the country's government always engages itself in a massive contract with the Chinese government to provide engineers. This is demoralizing the knowledgeable people within the country (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). In return, the poverty rate has remained high, thus keeping the rate of inequality between the employed and unemployed high.

The politics in Mozambique has turned out to benefit a few individuals. The politicians are only interested in their self-interest gains and have nothing to do with the common citizens. They are paid handsomely and are not concerned with the unemployed or people who received very low wages. As a result, it remains a huge gap between them and the people of the lower classes in the country. Furthermore, the politicians are also leading in increasing corruption in the country ("Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century", 2020). Employment and other equalizers like education have been driven by corruption. As a result, even the learned remains poor since they have no one to hand them towards employments.

Furthermore, employment in the country has been based on a tribal basis. In most cases, employers in the country have been employing people from their cultural backgrounds/ tribes. With this, people from rural and minority cultures lack great opportunities to reduce their poverty and unemployment rates (Gradín, 2020). Besides, the government had not implemented an effective program to create employment for all youths in the country. In return, this leads to an increased rate of inequality in the country.

The government fails to follow the effective implementation of a minimum wage for the employees in the country. However, it passed a bill that the minimum wage being 3,642 to 10,400 meticais every month (Hanlon, 2010). Normally, the minimum wage is a small amount of money, which the employer is supposed to compensate the employee after offering their labor services. Since the government has not set up strict measures in observing the minimum wages' maintenance, many employers are exploiting the employees by paying them peanuts. The poor compensations have been accompanied by the increased rate of unemployment in the country. Many people are only after being employed, without minding about the minimum wage policy.

Technological innovation has altered the nature of work in the economy. Although the growth of technology is a determinant of population growth, it has affected many people in the country. As manufacturing industries and other companies invest in more machinery, they have reduced the number of employees within the organizations. Machines have come to replace some of the employees, and make the work effective and faster. It is a great achievement for these organizations since the machines have been improving the organizations' overall productivity ("Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century", 2020). Such organizations are left with no otherwise, rather than lay off some of their employees in some cases. In return, this has left many people unemployed and poor, thus increasing the rate of inequality.

Benefit System

The inequality of the income earned by the richest 10% is excessively high, as compared to the percentage earned by the poorest 10 %( Gradín & Tarp, 2020). As mentioned earlier, this percentage represents 40% and 2-7% of the world's total income (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). This is a huge difference, and the government sincerely needs to do something to reduce this disparity. There is too much wealth concentrated in the few individuals in the country, while the highest population lives in extreme poverty. The tax should be more progressive as income increases. The government can reduce this disparity by implementing an effective tax and benefit system. Through this, the government should tax the richest people highly and use that revenue to help the country's poor. The government can use the rich's revenue by offering unemployment benefits to the poor, giving them income support, food and housing benefits (Arregui, 2020). This can be the most effective method that the government can use in reducing inequality between the rich and the poor in the country.

Increasing Minimum Wages

The monthly minimum wage in Mozambique is 3,642 to 10,400 meticais (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). This amount is too low and has created a lot of employee exploitation by their employees. Most of the employers have been paying their employees towards the lowest side of the minimum wages. There is a high disparity between the poor and the rich in the country- since the highest population receives the minimum wage of 3,642 meticais (Gradín & Tarp, 2020). The government should raise the minimum wage to at least 5 000 meticais (Gradín 2020). Here, the government should not implement a higher minimum wage policy in the country but should also follow to ensure that employees do not receive less compensation. It might not be easy for the government to follow whether every employer is observing the rule, but it can impose strict regulations. The employer who should violate the policy should face the law strictly. High fines can also work for such an employer. If the government charges very high taxes to them, this can impose fear on them, making them follow the minimum wage brackets while compensating their employees.

Stop Importing Labor

The government has been importing labor from other countries, yet there is a very high population of unemployed people. The increased rate of unemployment has contributed a lot to increase the rate of inequality. There are so many people with knowledge and skills to carry out various operations carried out by people from other countries (Gradín, 2020). Therefore, the government should give its citizens a priority in terms of employment. For example, it is importing engineers from China to build roads, despite the country having so many unemployed engineers. If the government must import labor, it should try as much as possible to reduce the number of workers, to give room for the unemployed in the country.

Conclusion

The rate of gender inequality in Mozambique is still high. For example, women are very few in contract farming and the parliament compared to men- currently, there are 38% women in the parliament (Karberg, 2020). The government should reduce this disparity by empowering them. The government is the integral body, reducing all the barriers that do not favor women in the country. It has more power in influencing situations in the country. The government should first make gender equality a priority in the national budget- national expenditures.