The Food Subsidy Programme (in Portuguese, PSA – Programa de Subsidio de Alimentos) in Mozambique is a rare example in the southern African region of a state-led social security programme with continuous funding over a long period. This case-study is therefore a key one for informing the contemporary policy discussion about providing predictable funding for predictable needs, and scaling up cash transfer forms of social protection. The PSA began in 1990 during civil war conditions, but evolved to its current institutional form in 1997. The Programme provides a monthly cash transfer to people who are destitute and have no capacity to work, including older, disabled and chronically ill people (but not those living with HIV/AIDS and TB), and pregnant women who are malnourished.

The PSA is implemented by the National Institute of Social Action (INAS), a semi-autonomous agency of the Ministry for Women and Social Action (MMAS). It is funded by the Mozambique government, and its recent budgets were 164.2m Mtn (US$6.3m) in 2006 and 188.6m Mtn (US$7.3m) in 2007. The value of the transfer to beneficiaries varies from 70 Mtn (US$2.7 per month) to a maximum of 140 Mtn (US$5.4 per month) depending on the number of dependents in the household1. The number of beneficiaries was 96,600 in 2006, and had risen to 101,800 in March 2007.