Greater Maputo

The overall objective of the Maputo Urban Poverty and Inclusive Growth Study is to inform the municipal governments of Maputo and Matola in the Greater Maputo Area (GMA) on how to better target and finance urban poverty reduction programs by building critical knowledge on urban poverty and land-based municipal revenue enhancement. The study carried out an in-depth poverty and vulnerability mapping and analysis in order to better understand the spatial distribution of poverty in the GMA. It showed that poverty has significantly reduced in most of the neighborhoods in GMA from 1997 to 2007. The study also showed a strong correlation between poverty reduction and access to basic services and urban infrastructure, though it was not possible to identify a correlation between poverty incidence of natural hazards based on availability data. The study also carried out for the first time in the GMA a comprehensive housing market assessment in order to collect primary data on real estate market value, which was used as basis for estimating the net present value of different policy options to increase property tax. It suggested that municipal revenue for property taxation could significantly increase if municipalities would improve tax compliance, increase tax rate from actual 0.4 to 1.0 percentage, and use market value to assess property tax. In this case, Maputo City Council would generate Mt 44 billion and Matola Mt 29 billion in NPV terms. Finally, study provided specific policy and institutional development recommendations at national and municipal levels with the ultimate objective to increased urban infrastructure finance, and better target pro-poor interventions not only in GMA, but also benefiting other cities in Mozambique.