Municipal ICT Capacity and its Impact on the Climate-Change Affected Urban Poor : The Case of Mozambique

Abstract

The objective of conducting this case study on Mozambique is to uncover the pattern of municipal Information and Communication Technology (ICT) impact that may exist in other low-capacity countries with analogous political economy structures in relation to leveraging ICT in public sectors. The study concludes by suggesting measures to link the continent's ICT boom in citizen-based mobile telephony and internet usage with the rapid rise of public sector ICT phenomena as a promising means to plug service delivery gaps. In view of these highlights, this report stands to serve as a valuable resource guide to a wide audience of practitioners, including policy wonks, urban specialists; ICT and climate change enthusiasts, as well as social accountability activists. This report consists of five sections. Section one details the impact of climate change on Mozambique's urban poor while also providing an overview of the country's disaster response system. In view of the decentralization of much of Mozambique's ICT and other resources among municipal governments, section two sheds light on leveraging local government-level ICT towards enhancing urban climate resilience and disseminates awareness on the 'ICT- Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA)' framework. Section three describes the four ICT tools most widely being used towards climate-change adaptation, while Section 4 seeks to quantify the level to which municipal ICT growth is having an impact on urban climate resilience generally, and seeks to answer the question of whether it is having an equitable impact on the poor. Upon measuring the extent to which urban climate resilience is being enhanced and analyzing differential impact on the urban poor, section five recommends targeted reform in ICT-PARPA framework such that ICT impact is equitable for all communities, and postulates how such reform can be realized.